A 

TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 
FOR  AMERICANS 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 
FOR  AMERICANS 


WRITTEN  AND   COMPILED 

^=  BY  = 

AN  AMERICAN 


Being  the  Fourth  Edition  of 
"A  PRIMER  OF  THE  WAR  FOR  AMERICANS" 

REVISED  AND  ENLARGED 


J.  WILLIAM  WHITE,  M.D.,  PH.D.,  LL.D. 

Fellow  of  the  American  College  of  Surgeons 
Trustee  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE  JOHN  C  WINSTON  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1915,  by 
THE  JOHN  C.  WINSTON  Co. 


yf, 


To 

THE  AMERICAN  PBESS 

Which,  as  a  whole,  from  the  very  first  days  of  the  war  has  with 
courage,  fidelity  and  intelligence  resolutely  upheld  the  principles 
of  right,  of  justice  and  of  democracy  and  has  accurately  expressed 
the  sympathy  of  the  vast  majority  of  Americana  for  the  cause  of 
the  Allies.  r>  r 


PEEFACE 

Very  soon  after  the  beginning  of  the  war  its  literature 
was  already  so  voluminous,  the  statements  made  by  the 
warring  nations  were  so  contradictory,  the  accusations  and 
counter-accusations  were  so  numerous,  the  pleas  of  impas- 
sioned advocates  were  so  irreconcilable,  that  a  certain  be- 
wilderment and  confusion  on  the  part  of  Americans  was 
almost  inevitable. 

It  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the  intelligence  and  clear 
thinking  of  the  nation  that,  from  the  day  England's  "White 
Book"  was  laid  before  the  world,  this  country  as  a  whole — 
with  the  exception  of  those  Germans  living  here,  who  are 
known  as  "German-Americans" — ranged  itself  spontane- 
ously and  with  practical  unanimity  on  the  side  of  the  Allies. 
But  however  correct  this  position  was — and  I  believe  it 
was  absolutely  correct — it  soon  became  apparent  that  not 
everyone  who  occupied  it  could  give  cogent  and  convincing 
reasons  for  the  belief  that  was  in  him,  or  could  refute; 
clearly  and  logically  the  opposing  arguments  and  correct 
the  misstatements  on  which  they  were  often  based. 

As  I  found  this  to  be  my  own  case  I  began  to  set  aside, 
or  to  note  down,  as  if  I  were  preparing  for  a  lecture,  the 
questions  which  seemed  to  me  of  fundamental  importance 
and  the  answers  that  most  impressed  and  satisfied  me. 
Later,  for  the  attempted  benefit  of  my  family  and  of  a  few 
friends,  and  for  the  further  clarification  of  my  own  views, 
I  threw  these  memoranda  into  the  form  of  a  series  of 
questions  and  answers.  In  doing  this  I  had  then  no  definite 
idea  of  any  other  use  of  this  material  and  in  now  acceding 
to  the  suggestion  of  some  friends  that  the  matter  thus 
(vii) 


viii  PREFACE 

brought  together  be  given  wider  distribution  I  should  very 
much  like  it  to  be  understood  that  I  do  not  feel  that  I  have 
any  special  fitness  for  the  self-imposed  task.  If  I  lay  the 
result  before  readers — if  I  have  any — outside  the  small 
circle  for  whom  it  was  originally  intended,  it  is  only  to  try 
to  do  just  for  this  moment  the  little  that  lies  in  me  to  help 
a  cause  in  which  I  profoundly  believe. 

If  the  paper  has  any  value  it  will  not  be  from  what  I 
have  written,  but  from  the  collocation  of  the  opinions  of 
others,  each  of  whom  is  a  recognized  authority  as  to  the 
subject  he  deals  with. 

Wherever  my  answers  have  involved  questions  of  fact  I 
have  taken  pains  to  attain  accuracy.  When  they  have 
related  to  matters  of  opinion  I  have  endeavored  to  give  the 
basis  for  such  opinions.  I  adopted  the  Socratic  method  in 
the  beginning  because  for  me,  without  special  training,  it 
was  the  easiest.  I  have  retained  it  for  the  same  reason. 

I  beg  to  add  finally  that  any  proceeds  that  may  accrue 
from  the  sale  of  this  pamphlet  are  pledged  in  advance  to 
the  Belgian  Belief  Fund. 

J.  William  White. 

1810  8.  Rittenhouse  Square,  Philadelphia. 
November,  1914. 


FEEFACE  TO  THE  "TEXT-BOOK" 

The  unexpected  attention  paid  to  my  compilation  and 
the  rapid  exhaustion  of  three  editions  has  led  me  to  add 
some  chapters  based  on  subsequent  occurrences  and  on 
later  writings,  and  to  re-issue  the  so-called  "Primer"  in 
this  new  and  amplified  form.  I  have,  however,  tried  to 
adhere  to  my  original  intent,  which  was  that  the  book 
should  derive  any  value  it  might  have,  rather  from  the 
collation  and  arrangement,  in  readable  and  logical  form, 
of  the  writings  of  others,  (chiefly  of  Americans),  than 
from  the  expression  of  my  own  views. 

This  does  not  mean  that  I  have  not  confidence  in  my 
views  or  that  they  are  not  fixed  and  decided,  but  merely 
that  I  recognize  that  there  are  very  many  others  better 
qualified  to  speak  authoritatively,  and  that  when  their 
opinions  -and  mine  coincide  I  am  more  effectively  serving 
the  cause  I  desire  to  help,  by  free  quotation  than  by  orig- 
inal pronouncement. 

Many  of  the  questions  dealt  with  change  from  day  to 
day  in  the  form  of  their  presentment  to  the  public,  but  as 
to  most  of  them  there  are  underlying  principles  which  can 
as  well  be  maintained  or  opposed  with  reference  to  one  set 
of  facts  as  to  another,  just  as  specific  test  cases  are  sub- 
mitted to  a  court,  so  that  the  decision  may  thenceforth 
apply  to  all  similar  cases.  The  effort  to  keep  pace  with  the 
rapid  march  of  current  events,  has  precluded  careful  atten- 
tion to  literary  form.  Some  of  the  matter  dealt  with  is  of 
necessarily  ephemeral  character.  The  desire  to  present 
important  questions,  or  questions  involving  broad  prin- 
ciples, from  different  aspects,  and  as  approached  from  dif- 

(ix) 


x  PREFACE  TO  THE  TEXT-BOOK 

ferent  sides  or  expressed  in  different  language,  has  led  to 
some  repetition. 

In  spite  of  this,  I  venture  to  hope  that  as  a  compilation 
the  book  fairly  and  fully  represents  intelligent  American 
opinion  at  this  juncture,  and  that,  for  a  time  at  least,  it 
may  have  some  value  as  a  work  of  reference  when,  among 
Americans,  the  questions  I  have  asked  and  tried  to  answer 
come  up  for  discussion.  With  this  idea  in  mind,  I  have 
added  an  "Index  of  Names,"  giving,  when  it  is  not  given  in 
the  text  itself,  a  brief  identification  of  each  person  men- 
tioned, so  far  as  it  was  possible  to  do  so.  I  have  been 
compelled  to  omit  a  few  of  the  German  apologists  because 
I  could  find  nothing  about  them  in  any  "Who's  Who/'  or 
in  any  biographical  dictionary,  although  I  included  in  my 
search  a  "Dictionary  of  the  Noted  Names  of  Fiction/' 

In  this  edition  are  incorporated,  in  addition  to  much  new 
matter,  portions  of  a  paper  written  in  collaboration  with 
Miss  Agnes  Repplier ;  and  a  brief  address  delivered  by  me 
before  The  Contemporary  Club  of  Philadelphia. 

J.  W.  W. 
March,  1915. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

What  evidence  exists  as  to  the  real  reason,  the  funda- 
mental cause  of  this  war  ? 17 

CHAPTER  II. 

What  is  the  evidence  as  to  the  events  immediately 
leading  up  to  the  war  in  their  relation  to  the 
culpability  of  Germany  ? 60 

CHAPTER  III. 

What  has  been  the  attitude  of  the  German  Apologists 
in  relation  to  Belgium  since  the  violation  of 
neutrality  ? 75 

CHAPTER  IV. 

As  time  went  on  has  there  been  reason  to  modify 
or  to  mitigate  the  almost  universal  condemna- 
tion of  Germany's  treatment  of  Belgium  felt  and 
expressed  at  the  outset  in  this  country  ? 99 

CHAPTER  V. 

In    what    estimation    does     America    to-day    hold 

Belgium?   130 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Is  there  any  evidence  which  tends  to  show  why  the 
present  time  was  selected  by  Germany  to  Pre- 
cipitate the  war  ? 135 

(xi) 


xii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VII. 

PAGE 

What  are  the  principles  represented  by  the  opposing 

forces  in  this  war  ? 138 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

In  addition  to  the  evidence  already  presented  as  to 
the  mental  attitude  of  the  average  German  toward 
his  own  race  and  toward  other  European  races, 
are  there  any  facts  tending  to  show  his  real  atti- 
tude toward  America  ? 156 

CHAPTER  IX. 

What  is  the  attitude  of  German-Americans  toward  this 
war  and  toward  the  principles  involved  ? 171 

CHAPTER  X. 

What  is  the  extent  and  what  are  the  aims  of  the  organ- 
ized German  propaganda  in  America? 190 

CHAPTER  XI. 

How  much  reliance  is  to  be  placed  upon  statements 

emanating  from  Germany  at  this  time? 250 

CHAPTER  XII. 

What  is  the  truth  as  to  the  pre-eminence  of  German 
"Kultur"  of  German  civilization,  of  German 
achievement  in  letters,  arts  and  sciences? 313 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

What  of  Russia  in  this  war,  and  of  the  "Slav  Peril"  ? . .   333 


CONTENTS  xiii 

CHAPTER  XIV.  pAQE 

.What  are  the  duties  of  America  at  this  time? 337 

CHAPTEE  XV. 

What  are    the  interests  of  America  at  this  time?. . . .  350 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

What  is  the  effect  of  the  official  attitude — past  and 
present — of  this  country  on  (a)  Americans, 
(6)  Other  peoples ? 364 

CHAPTEE  XVII. 

From  the  confusing  and  contradictory  reports  from 
the  fields  of  war  and  from  other  information  to 
be  gleaned  elsewhere  are  there  any  indications 
that  justify  an  opinion  as  to  the  final  outcome  of 
the  struggle  ? .......  448 

CHAPTEE  XVIII. 
What  can  America  do  to  bring  about  peace  ? 481 

CHAPTEE  XIX. 

What,  in  the  light  of  this  war,  should  be  the  aim  of 

this  and  other  civilized  countries  for  the  future?  495 

CHAPTEE  XX. 

What  general  opinions  are  justified  by  the  foregoing 

evidence  ?     Summary  499 

Eeferences    507 

Bibliography    515 

Index  of  Names 517 

General  Index 539 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Facsimile  of  a  page  from  the  Diary  of  Private  Paul 

Glode '. 120 

Facsimile  of  a  Page  of  "Boiler-Plate" — Matrix — Sent 
to  American  Newspapers  by  the  German  Informa- 
tion Service ,  194 


CHAPTEE  I. 


What  Evidence  Exists  as  to  the  Real  Reason, 
the  Fundamental  Cause  of  This  War? 

a.  The  most  conclusive  evidence  is  to  be  found  in  the 
writings  and  teachings  of  prominent  and  representative 
Germans  during  the  past  forty-three  years,  i.  e.,  ever  since 
the  victory  of  Germany  over  France. 

These  writings  and  teachings  demonstrate  the  deter- 
mination of  Germany  to  attain  "World  Power."  This 
determination  was  the  fundamental  cause  of  the  war.  The 
writings  in  question  are  fairly  illustrated  by  excerpts  given 
below,  (p.  30)  It  should  be  premised  that  as  soon  as  these 
doctrines  became  widely  known  to  the  world  outside  of  Ger- 
many and  exerted  their  inevitable  influence  upon  public 
opinion,  apologists  and  repudiators  sprang  up  among  the 
Germans,  or  the  "German-Americans."  For  example,  to 
take  only  a  few  of  the  latter :  Herr  Bidder,  of  the  Staats 
Zeitung,  says  (1)  in  reference  to  certain  English  writers: 

"I  am  unable  to  come  to  any  other  conclusion  than  that  their 
readings  have  been  confined  to  Bernhardi  and  Treitschke,  those 
two  German  writers  who  were  never  part  of  German  intellec- 
tual life  and  were  both  disowned  by  the  German  people. 

"As  a  matter  of  fact,  Bernhardi  is  not  even  read  in  Germany. 
Of  his  works,  published  by  Cotta,  only  8,000  copies  have  been 
given  to  the  public  to  date. 

"The  writings  of  Treitschke,  as  a  historian,  are  regarded  by 
Germans  as  brilliant,  but  Treitschke  is  remembered  by  them 
as  a  man  of  intense  party  feeling  who  labored  under  the  -spirit 
of  1870,  and  was  incapable  of  true  sympathy  with  their  racial 
aspirations." 

2  (17) 


18  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

All  the  evidence  I  have  been  able  to  find  shows  the 
essential  falsity  of  these  statements. 

Another  German-American  calls  Bernhardi  "a  retired 
German  general  of  jingoistic  tendencies,"  and  asks  for 
"proof  that  his  book  had  the  approval  of  the  Kaiser. 
It  would  seem  sufficient  reply  to  him  to  ask  for  proof 
jthat  it  had  his  disapproval.  In  the  absence  of  such 
proof  it  is  fair  to  assume,  in  view  of  the  Kaiser's  incessant 
activities  and  restless  supervision  of  all  things  German, 
and  especially  of  all  things  military,  that  at  least  the  book 
did  not  greatly  displease  him.  Still  another,  Professor 
Jastrow,  also  repudiates  Bernhardi  as  an  exponent  of  Ger- 
man thought,  but  gives  no  more  convincing  reasons. 

The  following  quotation  from  a  letter  of  Dr.  Jastrow 
(2)  well  illustrates  the  tactics  I  am  considering.  After 
asserting  that  at  first  "we"  (he  professes  to  be  speaking 
for  Americans)  threw  the  sole  responsibility  of  the  war 
upon  the  Kaiser,  he  continues : 

"When  doubt  arose  as  to  the  accuracy  of  this  picture  of  a 
modern  combination  of  Machiavelli  and  Napoleon,  we  discovered 
Bernhardi,  and  found  that  his  influence,  or  that  of  the  whole 
party  which  he  represents,  was  behind  it  all.  Bernhardi  fre- 
quently quoted  a  man  by  the  name  of  Treitschke,  and,  although 
very  few  in  this  country  had  ever  heard  of  him  and  scarcely 
anybody  had  read  him  (for  his  works  had  not  been  translated 
into  English),  we  were  willing  to  take  him  on  faith,  and  were 
quite  satisfied  that  his  teachings  involved  the  conquest  of  all 
of  Western  Europe  and  of  England  for  the  purpose  of  spread- 
ing German  'culture' ;  and  to  this  programme  we  added,  of  our 
own  accord,  the  subsequent  conquest  of  the  United  States." 

He  must,  like  Miinsterberg  (page  182),  be  writing  to 
impress  a  peculiarly  infantile  type  of  American  mind. 
The  effort  to  belittle,  for  this  purpose,  the  great  Pan- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  19 

German  historian,  by  speaking  of  him  as  "a  man  named 
Treitschke,"  is  particularly  characteristic. 

But  his  whole  argument  to  the  effect  that  because  we 
"have  just  discovered"  these  people,  therefore  we  are  wrong 
in  believing  that  they  represent  Germany,  is  scarcely 
worthy  of  notice. 

What  does  it  matter  that  Americans  generally  were  not 
familiar  with  their  writings  until  this  shocking  war  was 
begun? 

Of  what  importance  is  it  that  we  were  in  ignorance  of 
their  grandiose  plans  and  sinister  purposes? 

What  bearing  on  the  real  question  has  the  fact  that 
Treitschke  had  not  been  translated  into  English  when  we 
first  began  to  take  an  interest  in  him  ?  None  whatever.  It 
is  not  worth  while  to  try  to  drag  that  herring  across  the 
trail. 

The  question  remains :  What  were  their  teachings  and 
what  reason  is  there  to  believe  that  they  greatly  influenced 
German  public  opinion? 

As  to  Dr.  Jastrow's  final  sentence  that  "we  added  of  our 
own  accord  the  subsequent  conquest  of  the  United  States," 
I  beg  to  refer  the  reader — with  at  present  merely  incidental 
mention  of  the  offensive  "we"  and  "our" — to  pages  354-56. 

We  are  asked  to  believe  that  a  former  member  of  the 
German  army  staff,  who,  so  far  as  we  know,  has  never  been 
reproved  or  censured  or  contradicted  by  the  Kaiser,  or  by 
any  other  member  of  that  staff,  who  wrote  as  an  expert  in 
both  German  statesmanship  and  German  strategy,  and 
whose  book,  published  three  years  ago,  forecast  with  entire 
accuracy  the  actions  and  movements  of  Germany  in  the 
present  war,  was  "disowned  by  the  German  people"  and 
did  not  represent  the  military  caste  to  which  he  belonged. 

It  is  not  possible  to  believe  this  or  to  think  that  he  was 


20  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

not  in  full  touch  with  the  scarcely  concealed  purposes  of  the 
"Weltmacht  oder  Medergang"  party.  His  book  was  an 
amazingly  frank  exposition  of  those  purposes  and  an  ex- 
travagant and  unqualified  eulogy  of  militarism. 

Dr.  Dernburg,  with  the  same  obvious  object  of  belittling 
Bernhardi,  speaks  repeatedly  of  two  editions  only  of  Bern- 
hardr's "Germany  and  the  ISText  War."  The  German  book 
lists  give  six  editions  within  eighteen  months.  In  the 
opinion  of  Moltke  himself,  Bernhardr's  father  was  the 
"Erste  Kenner  der  Kriegswissenschaft  in  Deutschland." 
Sir  John  French  wrote  an  introduction  to  the  English 
translation  of  Bernhardr's  work  on  Cavalry.  (3) 

Before  the  war  Bernhardr's  uncontradicted  statements 
were  generally  accepted  as  embodying  the  views  of  the 
aristocratic  caste,  and  in  the  present  campaign  both  the 
German  armies  and  the  German  diplomats  have,  even  down 
to  relatively  unimportant  details,  followed  with  curious 
exactness  his  prophetic  tactics. 

As  to  Treitschke,  whom  many  of  the  German-American 
commentators  similarly  repudiate,  he  was  unquestionably 
one  of  their  great  national  historians.  Viscount  Bryce 
calls  him  "the  famous  Professor  of  History."  His  lectures 
at  Berlin  were  listened  to  for  years  by  crowded  and  enthu- 
siastic audiences,  his  teachings  as  to  Politik  became  a  gos- 
pel. Mr.  Norman  Hapgood  (4)  says  of  him : 

"He,  most  of  all,  made  intellectual  Germany  drunk  with  the 
idea  of  her  so-called  destiny.  He  taught  her  that  all  history 
led  up  to  the  leadership  of  the  Teuton.  .  .  .  Germans  quote 
him  as  no  historian  is  quoted  by  the  English  or  the  French.  In 
interpreting  history  he  is  their  Bible.  Their  political  thinkers 
never  tire  of  him." 

A  similar  estimate  of  him  is  expressed  by  another  writer : 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  21 

"Professor  von  Treitschke's  r61e  in  all  this  education  for  war 
of  the  German  peoples  has  been  that  of  the  man  who  has  pros- 
tituted history  in  the  interests  of  armament  firms.  One  of  his 
arguments  is  that  political  idealism  is  dependent  on  war,  and 
that  it  is  war  alone  that  makes  men  realize  that  they  belong 
to  a  definite  political  institution,  to  wit,  the  German  nation; 
and  since  the  nation  really  lives  on  account  of  its  heroes,  war 
is  the  'terrible  medicine'  which  prevents  heroism  disappearing 
from  the  ranks  of  humanity.  In  his  view  there  can  be  no  hero- 
ism in  peace.  It  was  Professor  von  Treitschke  who  really 
began,  even  before  1870,  the  educational  campaign  of  the  intel- 
lectual class,  and  he  has  been  its  most  fanatic,  as  well  as  its 
most  popular,  exponent."  (5) 

Their  denial  of  Treitschke's  influence  in  Germany 
assumes,  as  do  most  of  their  assertions,  a  comfortable 
ignorance  on  the  reader's  part.  They  would  have  us  be- 
lieve that  this  great  historian,  whose  seventeen  volumes 
moulded  German  thought  and  fired  German  deeds,  was  an 
ordinary  professor,  listened  to  with  pleasure  because  of 
his  agreeable  oratory,  but  without  any  semblance  of 
authority. 

Treitschke  was  no  orator,  no  dealer  in  words.  He  was 
not  in  an  American  college,  talking  to  boys  and  girls. 
High  officials,  diplomats,  distinguished  soldiers  thronged  to 
hear  him ;  and  on  these  audiences  he  impressed  his  life-long 
hatred  of  England,  and  his  vision  of  Germany, — Germany 
dominated  always  by  his  beloved  Prussia, — as  the  world 
power  of  the  future.  "I  write  for  Germans,  not  for  for- 
eigners," he  was  wont  to  say;  and  it  would  certainly 
astound  any  educated  German  to  hear  Doctor  Dernburg 
assert  (in  order  to  convince  Americans  of  the  lamblike 
qualities  of  his  countrymen)  that  Treitschke,  great  and 
successful  upholder  of  militarism,  whose  counsels  have 
borne  fruit  a  thousandfold,  was  merely  a  pleasant  speaker, 


22  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"whose  conferences  were  mainly  attended  on  account  of  his 
refined  rhetoric." 

Powys  in  his  review  (6)  of  Mimsterberg's  book  has  dealt 
with  this  same  attempt  either  to  belittle  or  to  ignore  these 
writers.  Miinsterberg  (7)  has  adopted  the  latter  plan. 

"The  professor's  argument  is  a  disingenuous  one.  It  is  disin- 
genuous in  his  complete  omission — a  surely  very  significant 
omission — of  any  reference  to  Treitschke  or  to  Bernhardi.  I 
am  quite  prepared  to  agree  that  the  military  clique  in  Germany 
is  not  alone  responsible  for  this  war.  No  mere  clique,  no  mere 
war  party,  could  ever  succeed  in  rousing  the  spirit  of  a  nation 
as  the  German  nation  has  been  aroused.  But  this  matter  of 
great  popular  German  writers  is  quite  another  thing.  I  am 
afraid  it  is  only  too  obvious  why  Professor  Miinsterberg  makes 
no  mention  of  them !  After  reading  them,  it  is  not  very  easy  to 
maintain  our  belief  in  the  purely  pacific  intentions  of  a  Ger- 
many untouched  by  world-ambitions! 

"  'Germany's  pacific  and  industrious  population  had  only  one 
wish:  to  develop  its  agricultural  and  industrial,  its  cultural 
and  moral  resources.  It  had  no  desire  to  expand  its  frontiers 
over  a  new  square  foot  of  land  in  Europe.  The  neighbors  be- 
grudged this  prosperity  of  the  Fatherland  which  had  been  weak 
and  poor  and  through  centuries  satisfied  with  songs  and 
thoughts  and  dreams.  They  threatened  and  threatened  by  ever- 
increasing  armaments.'  So  writes  Professor  Miinsterberg;  but 
unfortunately  it  has  not  been  Professor  Miinsterberg,  but  much 
more  daring  and  adventurous  geniuses  who  have  been  the 
mouthpieces  of  the  working  of  fate  in  the  matter  of  German 
public  opinion.  The  great  Treitschke,  a  really  national  histo- 
rian, and  one  of  enormous  genius  and  power — a  man  in  every 
respect  much  more  remarkable  than  Miinsterberg's  Euckens  and 
Harnacks — devoted  his  whole  life  to  inspiring  the  German  peo- 
ple with  his  ideal  of  offensive  war,  for  the  sake  of  world- 
domination. 

"Bernhardi,  whose  book  has  done  so  much  to  popularize  these 
views,  quotes  Treitschke  on  every  page." 

Doctor   Dernburg   defending   the  militarism   of   Bern- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  23 

hardi  and  Treitschke  says  that  it  was  created  as  "a  dire 
necessity  for  the  defense  of  our  four  frontiers."  On  the 
other  hand,  Gerhart  Hauptmann,  the  most  original  of 
contemporary  German  writers,  represents  Germany  as 
struggling  to  burst  the  "iron  band"  forged  by  jealous 
enemies  around  her  breast,  which  is  an  ornate  way  of  saying 
that  she  seeks  to  extend  her  frontiers,  to  find  a  larger 
"place  in  the  sun."  Does  that  mean  "defense?"  If  not, 
who  speaks  for  Germany, — Hauptmann  or  Dernburg? 
They  cannot  both  be  right,  even  though  the  now  despised 
Bernhardi  does  say  that  "The  whole  realm  of  human,  knowl- 
edge is  concentrated  in  the  German  brain." 

The  plain  fact  is  that  the  longer  the  war  lasts,  and  the 
more  we  read  of  the  blundering  diplomacy  which  preceded 
it,  the  perfidy  with  which  it  was  inaugurated,  the  lame 
excuses,  the  contradictory  denials,  the  insolent  approvals 
of  that  blistering  shame,  and  the  preposterous  "appeals" 
which,  in  terms  of  alternate  flattery  and  bullying,  have 
been  addressed  to  the  United  States,  the  less  we  revere  that 
mighty  German  brain,  which,  if  full  of  knowledge,  is  corre- 
spondingly empty  of  wisdom- 
Knowledge  is  proud  that  it  has  learned  so  much, 
Wisdom  is  humble  that  it  knows  no  more. 

Dr.  Dernburg  has  recently  been  more  explicit  as  to 
Germany's  purposes.  In  an  article  with  the  highly  imagi- 
native title  of  "When  Germany  Wins"  (8),  he  has  formu- 
lated Germany's  peace  terms,  because  "it  might  be  of 
some  interest  to  Americans  to  know  what  Germany 
would  do"  under  the  hypothetical  condition  indicated 
in  his  title.  The  article,  being  written  for  Americans 
(not  for  Germans  or  German- Americans),  endeavors  to 
maintain  a  studied  moderation.  The  old  phrase  is  once 


24  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

more  employed:  "The  only  thing  Germany  stands  com- 
mitted to  is  to  hold  and  maintain  its  'place  in  the  sun/  " 

But  the  contemplation  of  the  delectable  feast  that, " When 
Germany  Wins/'  will  be  spread  before  the  conqueror,,  brings 
on  an  involuntary  watering  of  the  mouth  that  causes  a 
wolf's  slaver  to  betray  the  temporary  occupant  of  the  lamb's 
clothing.  feAs  a  general  rule  I  would  not  consider  it  wise 
for  my  country  to  attempt  any  territorial  aggrandizement 
in  Europe/'  "Any  rearrangement  of  the  European  map 
that  would  not  follow  national  lines  pretty  definitely  would 
be  only  a  source  of  constant  friction  hereafter."  The  italics 
are  mine.  The  world  knows  now  what  to  think  of  German 
promises,*  even  when  definite,  official  and  solemn.  It  there- 
fore also  knows  how  wide  a  gate  is  left  open  by  expressions 
such  as  "pretty  definitely"  and  "as  a  general  rule."  More- 
over, he  is '"speaking  only  as  a  private  person  and  cannot 
voice  in  any  way  official  sentiment,"  though  he  "feels  sure" 
that  he  is  "at  one  with  the  best  German  element."  I  have 
elsewhere  (pp.  92,  300  et  seq.)  called  attention  to  the  num- 
ber of  myths  and  of  non-existent  conditions  he  and  his  fel- 
lows have  "felt  sure"  of. 

But  with  all  these  preliminaries  it  develops  that  Dr. 
Dernburg's  ideas  of  the  immediate  demands  of  a  victorious 
Germany  are  as  follows : 

"I.  Germany  will  not  consider  it  wise  to  take  any  European 
territory,  but  will  make  minor  corrections  of  frontiers  for  mili- 
tary purposes  by  occupying  such  frontier  territory  as  has 
proven  a  weak  spot  in  the  German  armor. 

"II.  Belgium  belongs  geographically  to  the  German  Empire. 
She  commands  the  mouth  of  the  biggest  German  stream;  Ant- 
werp is  essentially  a  German  port.  That  Antwerp  should  not 
belong  to  Germany  is  as  much  an  anomaly  as  if  New  Orleans 
and  the  Mississippi  delta  had  been  excluded  from  Louisiana,  or 
as  if  New  York  had  remained  English  after  the  War  of  Inde- 
pendence. Moreover,  Belgium's  present  plight  was  her  own 


'A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  25 

fault.  She  had  become  the  vassal  of  England  and  France. 
Therefore,  while  'probably'  no  attempt  would  be  made  to  place 
Belgium  within  the  German  Empire  alongside  Bavaria,  Wur- 
temberg,  and  Saxony,  because  of  her  non-German  population, 
she  will  be  incorporated  in  the  German  Customs  Union  after 
the  Luxemburg  pattern. 

"III.  Belgium  neutrality  having  been  proved  an  impossibility, 
must  be  abolished.  Therefore,  the  harbors  of  Belgium  must  be 
secured  for  all  time  against  British  or  French  invasion. 

"IV.  Great  Britain  having  bottled  up  the  North  a  mare 
liberuwi  must  be  established.  England's  theory  that  the  sea  is 
her  boundary,  and  all  the  sea  her  territory  down  to  the  three- 
mile  limit  of  other  Powers,  cannot  be  tolerated.  Consequently, 
the  Channel  coasts  of  England,  Holland,  Belgium  and  France 
must  be  neutralized,  even  in  times  of  war,  and  the  American  and 
German  doctrine  that  private  property  on  the  high  seas  should 
enjoy  the  same  freedom  of  seizure  as  private  property  does  on 
land  must  be  guaranteed  by  all  nations.  This  condition  Herr 
Dernburg  accompanies  by  an  appeal  to  the  United  States  duly 
to  note  that  Britain  is  making  commercial  war  upon  Germany. 

"V.  All  cables  must  be  neutralized. 

"VI.  All  Germany's  colonies  are  to  be  returned.  Germany, 
in  view  of  her  growing  population,  must  get  extra  territory 
capable  of  population  by  whites.  The  Monroe  Doctrine  bars  her 
from  America;  therefore  she  must  take  Morocco,  'if  it  is  really 
fit  for  the  purpose.' 

"VII.  A  free  hand  must  be  given  to  Germany  in  the  develop- 
ment of  her  commercial  and  industrial  relations  with  Turkey, 
'without  outside  interference.'  This  would  mean  a  recognized 
sphere  of  German  influence  from  the  Persian  Gulf  to  the  Dar- 
danelles. 

"VIII.  There  must  be  no  further  development  of  Japanese 
influence  in  Manchuria. 

"IX.  All  small  nations,  such  as  Finland,  Poland,  and  the 
Boers  in  South  Africa,  if  they  support  Germany,  must  have  the 
right  to  frame  their  own  destinies,  while  Egypt  is  to  be  re- 
turned, if  she  desires  it,  to  Turkey. 

"These  conditions,  Herr  Dernberg  concludes,  would  'fulfill 
the  peaceful  aims  which  Germany  has  had  for  the  last  forty- 
four  years.'  They  show,  in  his  opinion,  that  Germany  has  no 
wish  for  world  dominion  or  for  any  predominance  in  Europe 


26  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

incommensurate  with  the  rights  of  the  122  millions  of  Germans 
and  Austrians." 

As  to  the  Baltic  Provinces  of  Kussia,  he  says:  "Whether 
these  could  be  added  to  the  German  Empire  would  hinge 
on  the  question  whether  they  could  be  defended."  (9) 

To  reiterate,  if  this  statement,  cautiously  prepared  to 
demonstrate  to  a  neutral  power  the  extreme  moderation  of 
Germany's  intentions  (and  at  a  time  when  the  end  is  not 
within  sight),  is  to  be  given  any  weight,  let  Americans 
imagine  for  themselves  the  probable  demands  of  a  really 
victorious  Germany.  (See  pp.  24,  27,  28.)  Lest  it  may  still 
be  thought  that  these  are  exceptional  views,  or  that  they 
represent  only  the  opinion  of  a  diplomat,  I  append  those 
of  a  scientist  (Ernst  Hseckel). 

Mr.  Villard,  (10)  before  quoting  Hseckel,  calls  attention 
to  the  great  need  for  an  American  Society  for  the 
Promulgation  of  Truth  in  Germany.  He  cites  various 
directions  in  which  it  could  be  of  use,  beginning  with  the 
Kaiser's  telegram  to  the  King  of  England  on  August  1, 
1914  (p.  73),  "The  troops  on  my  frontier  are  in  the  act 
of  being  stopped  by  telegraph  and  telephone  from  crossing 
into  France."  He  believes  this  could  not  have  been  publicly 
known  or  understood  in  Germany.  He  instances  the  official 
German  despatch  which  reported  the  British  army  as  sur- 
rounded; the  ultimata  sent  to  Paris  and  Petrograd  at  the 
most  critical  of  all  possible  critical  moments;  the  long 
article  in  the  VossiscJie  Zeitung,  by  Dr.  Ludwig  Stein,  on 
"The  Change  of  Opinion  in  America"  (in  which  is  claimed 
a  complete  reversal  of  our  judgment  on  the  war)  ;  and  the 
recent  speech  of  Major-General  von  Eoehl,  commanding  in 
Hamburg,  who,  "speaking  under  the  statue  of  Kaiser  Wil- 
helm  I,  said,  exactly  in  the  spirit  of  the  great  Kaiser's 
grandson,  Wilhelm  II,  'We  shall  not  again  sheathe  our 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  27 

sharp  and  just  sword  until  the  last  of  our  enemies  recog- 
nizes that  only  one  people  has  the  right  to  play  a  leading 
part  in  the  political  world,  and  that  people  is  the  German 
people/"  He  contrasts  this  with  the  systematic  belittle- 
ment — for  Americans — of  Bernhardr's  book  and  views.  He 
continues : 

"Our  American  society  for  informing  Germany  could  have 
no  more  pressing  duty  than  to  make  German  editors  understand 
that  Professor  Haeckel  injures  not  merely  his  own  high  and 
international  repute,  but  that  of  all  Germany  as  well,  when  he 
calmly  sets  down  this  programme  as  his  view  of  what  steps 
Germany  should  take  to  'reorganize  Europe  on  Teutonic  lines' 
when  victory  is  hers: 

"  '1.  The  crushing  of  the  English  tyranny. 

"'2.  The  invasion  of  Great  Britain  and  the  occupation  of 
London. 

"  '3.  The  division  of  Belgium ;  the  largest  portion,  from  Os- 
tend  to  Antwerp  in  the  west,  to  be  a  confederated  German 
state;  the  northern  part  to  be  given  to  Holland;  the  south- 
eastern part  to  be  given  to  Luxemburg,  which,  thus  enlarged, 
becomes  also  a  confederated  German  State. 

"'4.  A  large  number  of  the  British  colonies  and  the  Congo 
Free  State  to  go  to  Germany. 

"  '5.  France  to  surrender  to  Germany  some  of  her  northeast- 
ern frontier  provinces. 

"  '6.  Russia  to  be  rendered  impotent  by  the  reconstitution, 
under  Austrian  auspices,  of  the  kingdom  of  Poland. 

"  7.  The  German  provinces  of  the  Baltic  to  be  returned  to  the 
German  Empire. 

"  '8.  Finland,  united  with  Sweden,  to  become  an  independent 
kingdom.' " 

A  Philadelphia  paper  (11)  summarizes,  as  follows,  a 
pamphlet  published  in  March,  entitled  the  "World  War 
arid  Its  End,"  by  Eudolf  Martin,  former  German  Minister 
of  the  Interior.  The  writer  pictures  the  dismemberment 


28  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

of  Eussia  and  France,  the  absorption  of  the  Balkan  States 
and  the  domination  of  England  by  Germany. 

"The  huge  indemnity  which  the  author  believes  will  be 
demanded  by  Germany  when  she  dictates  peace  terms  in  Lon- 
don, after  two  years'  fighting,  is  estimated  on  the  basis  of  war 
costs  of  30  milliards  of  marks  to  be  sustained  by  Germany, 
Austria  and  Turkey,  in  the  proportion  of  16,  10  and  4,  respec- 
tively. 

"As  Germany  at  the  end  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War  made 
the  French  pay  two-and-one-half  times  what  it  cost  to  conduct 
the  conflict,  so,  the  writer  believes,  Germany  will  make  the 
Allies  pay  similarly  at  the  end  of  the  present  war.  In  addition 
75  milliards  will  be  demanded  for  the  support  of  dependents 
of  those  killed. 

"The  writer  sees  Germany  firmly  established  along  the  present 
French  coast,  in  a  position  to  control  both  London  and  Paris, 
and  possessed  of  an  air  fleet  of  many  thousands  of  machines 
and  20,000  air-men.  He  sees  England  forced  to  consent  to  the 
construction  of  a  tunnel  under  the  English  Channel,  equipped 
with  four  railway  tracks  and  an  automobile  roadway,  at  both 
ends  of  which  the  German  forces  are  in  control. 

"Russia  he  pictures  as  completely  dismembered,  its  territory 
divided  up  among  neighboring  powers,  its  coffers  depleted  to 
the  point  of  bankruptcy,  its  menace  to  the  German  Empire 
forever  gone.  In  the  process  of  dismemberment  he  predicts  the 
organization  of  new  States. 

"Sweden,  the  author  believes,  will  receive  Finland;  Germany, 
the  Baltic  Provinces  and  Poland;  Austria  will  take  the  entire 
south  of  Russia,  including  Kiev  and  Odessa ;  Turkey  will  receive 
the  entire  Caucasus,  including  the  government  of  Saratow ;  Rus- 
sia will  have  to  retire  both  from  the  Baltic,  the  Black  and  the 
Caspian  Seas. 

"Serbia  is  to  go  to  Austria-Hungary;  Egypt  to  Turkey;  a 
part  of  Arabia  to  Rumania,  provided  the  latter  allies  itself 
sincerely  with  Germany,  Austria  and  Turkey;  and  every  other 
State  which  similarly  joins  this  group  will  be  properly 
rewarded. 

"Not  only  does  Alsace-Lorraine  remain  German,  but  Belfort 
is  to  join  it  once  more  as  a  German  possession.  Belgium  not 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  29 

only  becomes  German,  along  with  the  Congo,  but  is  to  pay  an 
indemnity  of  6*4  milliards  of  francs  within  a  few  years  of  the 
close  of  the  war. 

"Regarding  the  disposition  of  the  colonial  possessions  of  the 
Allies  the  writer  goes  into  little  detail,  beyond  stipulating  that 
England  and  France  must  lose  Egypt,  India,  Algiers,  Tunis  and 
Morocco  as  a  penalty  for  inducing  their  inhabitants  to  bear 
arms  against  Germany. 

"The  Suez  Canal  the  writer  sees  permanently  in  the  hands 
of  'our  ally,  Turkey.'  After  the  conclusion  of  peace,  he  hopes, 
English  ships,  instead  of  longer  paying  tolls  into  the  pocket  of 
the  English-owned  Suez  Canal  Company,  will  have  to  pay  them 
to  'our  ally,  Turkey.' 

"The  heavy  indemnities  proposed,  the  writer  frankly  says, 
are  for  the  purpose  of  so  weakening  Germany's  enemies  that 
it  will  be  years  before  they  can  even  contemplate  war  against 
her  again.  They  are  supplemented  by  taxation  and  a  military 
system  from  the  present  Belgium  to  the  new  Russian  border 
that  will  strengthen  Germany  indefinitely. 

"Though  Germany's  territory  will  be  greatly  increased  in 
Europe,  it  must  be  laid  down  as  a  basic  principle,  in  the  writer's 
opinion,  that  the  electorate  eligible  to  choose  the  membership 
of  the  controlling  Reichstag  must  be  confined  to  the  old  bound- 
aries. 

"Newly  acquired  Russian  Poland,  with  its  own  legislature 
in  Warsaw,  may  perhaps  become  an  adjunct  kingdom,  with 
Prince  August  William,  of  Russia,  as  ruler.  The  Belgians,  he 
believes,  may  also  form  a  kingdom  and  govern  themselves.  The 
acquired  Baltic  provinces,  as  well  as  the  territory  taken  from 
France,  can,  he  thinks,  without  harm  have  their  own  parlia- 
ments, and  live  under  the  direction  of  an  imperial  governor 
general." 

It  would  seem  that  doctrines  and  ambitions  indistin- 
guishable from  those  of  the  now  outlawed  and  repudiated 
Bernhardi  and  Treitschke  are  taught  and  promulgated  by 
their  successors. 

I  have  failed  to  find  in  the  writings  of  the  (German 
apologists  any  evidence  of  ante-bellum  repudiation  of  these 


30  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

latter  writers,  and  in  the  absence  of  such  evidence,  and  in 
the  light  of  the  collateral  proof  furnished  by  the  writings 
of  others  (quoted  below),  by  the  writings  even  of  those 
who  now  seek  to  discredit  and  to  belittle  them,  and  by  the 
circumstances  attending  the  outbreak  and  conduct  of  the 
war,  they  must  be  considered  as  representing  the  views  of 
at  least  that  part  of  the  German  people  who  were  intelli- 
gent enough  to  understand  them.  The  quotations  follow. 
I  have  used  some  of  those  employed  by  Viscount  Bryce  in 
a  recent  article  (12),  and  have  added  to  them  from  a  list  of 
my  own  almost  as  striking  and  conclusive: 

"War  is  in  itself  a  good  thing.  It  is  a  biological  necessity  of 
the  first  importance." 

"The  inevitableness,  the  idealism,  the  blessing  of  war  as  an 
indispensable  and  stimulating  law  of  development  must  be  re- 
peatedly emphasized." 

"War  is  the  greatest  factor  in  the  furtherance  of  culture  and 
power.  Efforts  to  secure  peace  are  extraordinarily  detrimental 
as  soon  as  they  can  influence  politics." 

"Efforts  directed  toward  the  abolition  of  war  are  not  only 
foolish,  but  absolutely  immoral,  and  must  be  stigmatized  as  un- 
worthy of  the  human  race." 

"Courts  of  arbitration  are  pernicious  delusions.  The  whole 
idea  represents  a  presumptuous  encroachment  on  natural  laws 
of  development,  which  can  only  lead  to  more  disastrous  conse- 
quences for  humanity  generally." 

"The  maintenance  of  peace  never  can  be  or  may  be  the  goal  of 
a  policy." 

"Efforts  for  peace  would,  if  they  attained  their  goal,  lead  to 
general  degeneration,  as  happens  everywhere  in  nature  where 
the  struggle  for  existence  is  eliminated." 

"Huge  armaments  are  in  themselves  desirable.  They  are  the 
most  necessary  precondition  of  our  national  health." 

"The  end  all  and  be  all  of  a  State  is  power,  and  he  who  is 
not  man  enough  to  look  this  truth  in  the  face  should  not  meddle 
with  politics."  (Quoted  from  Treitschke's  "Politik.") 

"The  State's  highest  moral  duty  is  to  increase  its  power." 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  31 

"The  State  is  justified  in  making  conquests  whenever  its  own 
advantage  seems  to  require  additional  territory." 

"Self-preservation  is  the  State's  highest  ideal  and  justifies 
whatever  action  it  may  take  if  that  action  be  conducive  to  that 
end.  The  State  is  the  sole  judge  of  the  morality  of  its  action. 
It  is,  in  fact,  above  morality,  or,  in  other  words,  whatever  is 
necessary  is  moral.  Recognized  rights  (i.  e.,  treaty  rights)  are 
never  absolute  rights;  they  are  of  human  origin  and,  therefore, 
imperfect  and  variable.  There  are  conditions  in  which  they  do 
not  correspond  to  the  actual  truth  of  things.  In  this  case  in- 
fringement of  the  right  appears  morally  justified." 

"In  fact,  the  State  is  a  law  unto  itself.  Weak  nations  have 
not  the  same  right  to  live  as  powerful  and  vigorous  nations." 

"Any  nation  in  favor  of  collective  humanity  outside  the  limits 
of  the  State  and  nationality  is  impossible." 

"War  is  a  biological  necessity  of  the  first  importance,  a  regu- 
lative element  in  the  life  of  mankind  which  cannot  be  dispensed 
with,  since  without  it  an  unhealthy  development  will  follow, 
which  excludes  every  advancement  of  the  race,  and,  therefore, 
all  real  civilization." 

"Just  as  increase  of  population  forms,  under  certain  circum- 
stances, a  convincing  argument  for  war,  so  industrial  condi- 
tions may  compel  the  same  result." 

"Frederick  the  Great  recognized  the  ennobling  effect  of  war. 
'War,'  he  said,  'opens  the  most  fruitful  field  to  all  virtues,  for 
at  every  moment  constancy,  pity,  magnanimity,  heroism  and 
mercy  shine  forth  in  it;  every  moment  offers  an  opportunity  to 
exercise  one  of  these  virtues.'" 

"We  can,  fortunately,  assert  the  impossibility  of  efforts  after 
peace  ever  attaining  their  ultimate  object  in  a  world  bristling 
with  arms,  where  a  healthy  egotism  still  directs  the  policy  of 
most  countries.  'God  will  see  to  it,'  says  Treitschke,  'that  war 
always  recurs  as  a  drastic  medicine  for  the  human  race.' " 

"We  ought  to  know  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  eternal 
peace;  we  ought  to  have  always  in  our  minds  that  saying  of 
Moltke's  'perpetual  peace  is  a  dream,  and  not  even  a  beautiful 
dream.  But  war  is  a  link  in  the  divine  system  of  the  uni- 
verse.'" (13) 

"The  German  nation  has  been  called  the  nation  of  poets  and 
thinkers,  and  it  may  be  proud  of  the  name.  To-day  it  may 


32  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

again  be  called  the  nation  of  masterful  combatants,  as  which  it 
originally  appeared  in  history."   (14) 

These  quotations  could  be  largely  added  to,  but  as  their 
authors  are  generals,  philosophers,,  theologians.,  and  princes, 
they  seem  representative  enough  to  show  the  spirit  that, 
whatever  may  have  been  its  numerical  or  geographical 
extent,  actuated  and  inspired  that  portion  of  the  German 
people  who  had  the  power  last  midsummer  to  commit  the 
entire  nation  to  a  gigantic  war,  with  "Deutschland  liber 
Alles"  and  "Weltmacht  oder  Medergang"  as  its  battle  cries. 

Every  student  of  Nature  recognizes  and  deplores  the 
cruelty  inseparable  from  the  struggle  for  existence  under- 
lying the  great  biological  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 

But  it  has  remained  for  these  spokesmen  of  Germany  to 
apply  it  to  civilized  nations,  without  essential  change  or 
modification,  eliminating  all  considerations  of  morality,  of 
altruism,  of  kindliness  to  the  weak  or  helpless,  of  every- 
thing, in  fact,  which  serves  to  distinguish  us  from  our 
fellow  animals.  There  is  little  enough  at  the  best,  but 
Bernhardi's  "biological  necessity"  of  war,  like  the  "neces- 
sity"— to  overrun  Belgium — of  the  German  Chancellor,  is 
simply  a  barefaced  return  to  the  ethics  of  the  tiger  or,  in 
its  coldbloodedness,  of  the  crocodile. 

It  was  amusing,  though  irritating,  to  find  an  American 
(Professor  Jastrow),  (15)  in  face  of  the  above  evidence 
and  much  more  that  is  similar,  crying  to  the  American 
people: 

"Let  us  be  fair  and  recognize  that  the  spirit  of  militarism  is 
strong  in  all  of  the  warring  nations." 

and  then  going  on,  with  the  tendency  that  most  of  our 
"German-American"  disputants  have  clumsily  shown,  to 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  33 

belittle  while  attempting  to  conciliate  the  country  of  their 
adoption,  to  say: 

"Even  we  are  not  entirely  free  of  it,  for  does  not  Theodore 
Roosevelt  voice  a  widely  prevailingTaentiment  when  he  advocates 
warfare  as  essential  to  the  full  strength  of  the  nation  ?" 

The  answer  to  which  is,  of  course,  that  Colonel  Roosevelt 
never  "voiced"  or  otherwise  favored  any  such  sentiment, 
and  that  no  sensible  person  ever  believed  it  to  be  widely 
prevalent  in  this  country  (p.  240). 

The  distinction  between  the  advocacy  of  sufficient  arma- 
ments to  ensure  respectful  treatment  from  military  or 
naval  bullies  and  the  advocacy  of  "warfare"  is  so  patent 
that  the  misstatement  implies  a  confusion  of  thought  that 
should  much  lessen  -the  value — if  it  had  any — of  the 
author's  labored  but  superficial  impartiality.  The  real 
animus  invariably  crops  out  in  all  these  "German-Amer- 
ican" writers,  and,  in  the  present  case,  the  "appeal  for  fair- 
ness and  moderation"  contains  the  statement  that  it  was 
a  "privilege" 

"To  see  a  great  united  people  rising  to  fight,  not  for  ag- 
grandizement, for  ports  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  or  for  colonies, 
or  eager  for  conquest  of  any  kind,  but  struggling  solely  for 
their  existence  to  preserve  the  fruits  of  their  labors  of  the  last 
thirty  years." 

The  "appeal"  also  describes  the  readiness  of  "Germany" 
"to  promise  the  integrity  of  France  and  even  of  the  French 
Colonies  if  England  would  remain  neutral."  (The  italics 
are  mine.)  It  does  not  mention  the  fact  that  this  sugges- 
tion was  made  by  Prince  Lichnowski  (the  German  Ambas- 
sador in  London)  on  his  individual  initiative  and  without 
authority  from  his  government;  or  that  on  July  29th  the 


34  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

German  Chancellor,  when  asked  about  the  French  colonies, 
had  declined  to  commit  himself  (English  White  Book,  No. 
85)  ;  or  that  at  about  that  time  Germany  had  failed  to  say 
that  it  was  "prepared  to  engage  to  respect  the  neutrality  of 
Belgium  so  long  as  no  other  power  violates  it,"  although 
France  had  given  an  unequivocal  promise  to  that  effect. 
Nor  does  it  allude  to  the  English  reason  for  refusal  to 
accept  the  informal  suggestion,  namely,  "that  France  with- 
out losing  territory  might  be  so  crushed  .as  to  lose  her  posi- 
tion as  a  Great  Power  and  become  subordinate  to  German 
policy/' 

As  to  Nietzsche,  the  German  apologists  place  a  touching 
reliance  upon  American  ignorance  when  they  say  that  be- 
cause the  word  superman  or  overman  was  used  by  Goethe 
before  it  was  used  by  Nietzsche,  therefore  we  might  with 
equal  justice  trace  Germany's  war  spirit  to  the  one  phil- 
osopher as  to  the  other.  If  they  see  no  difference  between 
the  philosophy  of  Goethe  and  the  philosophy  of  Nietzsche; 
between  Goethe's  Olympian  overman  rising  spiritually  and 
intellectually  above  the  foibles  of  humanity,  and  Nietzsche's 
bully  trampling  down  whatever  is  not  strong  enough  to 
resist;  between  the  balance  of  perfect  sanity  and  the  fren- 
zied revolt  which  precedes  madness,  they  must  be  in  a  state 
of  curious  mental  confusion.  But  they  need  not  assume 
that  their  readers  are  equally  confused.  "Germany,"  says 
that  too  ardent  upholder,  Dr.  Dernburg,  "has  waged  no  war 
of  any  kind,  has  never  acquired  a  territory  in  all  her  life 
except  by  treaty."  Good,  peaceful,  friendly,  gentle  nation ! 
Even  the  little  rudenesses  common  to  less  virtuous  folk  are 
foreign  to  her  soul.  "She  never  was  aggressive  to  anybody." 
And  how  she  has  been  misjudged !  We,  in  America,  thought 
she  had  annexed  Hanover,  appropriated  Schleswig-Holstein, 
divided  up  Poland,  swallowed  Silesia  whole,  taken  by  force 
Alsace  and  Lorraine.  We  thought  she  was  even  now  an- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  35 

nouncing  through  her  War  Lord  the  incorporation  of  Bel- 
gium into  Germany's  "glorious  provinces"  (p.  58).  How 
came  we  to  be  so  deceived? 

Doctor  Dernburg  asks  sarcastically,  (16)  "Do  Americans 
believe  all  the  'official  news'  which  the  Bussians  are  sending 
continuously  from  the  seat  of  war  as  to  their  enormous 
successes  ?"  Assuming  that  we  do  not,  he  then  asks  why  we 
believe  the  "White  Books/'  which  he  describes  as  "written 
for  the  purpose"  of  making  out  a  nation's  case." 

The  comparison  of  British  and  Belgian  "books"  with  a 
newspaper  report  would  be  absurd.  They  are  plain,  chron- 
ological, complete  records  of  all  the  diplomatic  documents 
bearing  upon  the  war.  But  perhaps  Doctor  Dernburg  is 
thinking  of  the  German  "White  Book,"  which  James  M. 
Beck  has  characterized  as  disclosing  "the  suppression  of 
documents  of  vital  importance,"  and  which  has  necessarily 
made  no  more  impression  on  Americans  than  did  that 
amazing  pamphlet  issued  by  a  number  of  German;  State- 
owned  teachers  and  scholars,  and  called  "The  Truth  About 
Germany"  (p.  251).  These  gentlemen  may  be  the  reposi- 
tories of  "the  whole  realm  of  human  knowledge/'  Who 
shall  gainsay  it?  But  wisdom  failed  them  in  their  need. 
They  committed  the  fatal  error  of  making  their  misstate- 
ments  ludicrous. 

This  has  been  a  digression,  but  it  will  serve  as  an  example 
of  the  "fairness  and  moderation"  of  the  Miinsterbergs  and 
Franckes,  the  Bidders  and  Jagemanns,  the  Alberts  and 
von  Machs,  the  Hilprechts,  Jastrows,  and  Dernburgs. 

b.  But  Question  1  is  not  yet  fully  answered.  Can  any 
collateral  evidence  of  the  determination  to  attain  to  "World 
Power"  "be  found  in  the  estimation  in  which,  Germans  hold 
their  country  and  themselves? 

I  think  it  can. 

A  little  book  with  the  crude  title  of  "Germany's  Swelled 


36  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  TEE  WAR 

Head/'  written  by  Emil  Keich,  a  Hungarian,  I  believe,  and 
published  in  London,  in  1907,  contains  much  interesting, 
sometimes  amusing,  information  on  this  subject. 

The  writer  quotes  various  authors  in  support  of  the 
statement  that  when  the  Kaiser  speaks  or  writes  of  Greater 
Germany  he  "in  all  sincerity  means  two-thirds  of  Europe. 
He  means  that  the  German  Empire  of  the  near  future  will, 
and  by  right  of  Eace  ought  to,  comprise  two-thirds  of 
Europe."  He  adds  that  this  idea  may  appear  too  childish 
for  serious  consideration,  says  that  in  all  countries  there 
have  been  single  eccentrics  who  have  absurdly  overrated 
the  significance  and  importance  of  their  nation,  and  that 
such  persons  do  not  prove  very  much  as  to  the  state  of  mind 
of  the  majority  of  a  people.  But  he  insists  that 

"That  which,  in  other  countries  never  rises  beyond  a  mere 
oddity  is,  in  contemporary  Germany,  a  vast  wave  of  national 
thought.  In  the  Fatherland,  as  has  long  been  remarked  by 
many  an  observing  traveler  or  scholar,  the  writers,  teachers, 
journalists  and  scholars  of  the  day  have  an  infinitely  greater 
influence  on  the  people  than  similar  brain-workers  ever  wield 
in  England." 

He  then  quotes  from  "The  Foundations  of  the  XlXth 
Century,"  a  book  which  he  says  was  warmly  and  publicly 
approved  by  the  Kaiser,  and  which  sold  largely  in  Germany 
and  gave  rise  to  a  mass  of  controversial  literature.  The 
author,  Chamberlain  by  name,  says : 

"By  Germans,  I  mean  the  various  populations  of  Northern 
Europe,  who  appear  in  history  as  Kelts,  Germans,  Slavs,  and 
from  whom,  mostly  in  inextricable  confusion,  the  peoples  of 
modern  Europe  are  sprung.  That  they  came  originally  from  a 
single  family  is  certain,  but  the  German,  in  the  narrower 
Tacitean  sense,  has  kept  himself  so  pre-eminent  among  his  kins- 
men, intellectually,  morally  and  physically,  that  we  are  justified 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  37 

in  applying  his  name  to  the  whole  family.  The  German  is  the 
soul  of  our  culture.  The  Europe  of  to-day,  spread  far  over  the 
globe,  exhibits  the  brilliant  result  of  an  infinitely  varied  rami- 
fication. What  binds  us  into  one  is  the  Germanic  blood.  .  .  . 
Only  Germans  sit  on  European  thrones.  What  has  happened 
is  only  prolegomena.  .  .  .  True  history  begins  from  the 
moment  when  the  German,  with  mighty  hand,  seizes  the  inheri- 
tance of  antiquity." 

Eeich  quotes  further  from  the  work  of  Ludwig  Wolt- 
man,  "Die  Germanen  und  die  Renaissance  in  Italien" 
(1905),  in  which  the  effort  is  made  to  prove  that  Ben- 
venuto  Cellini,  Michaelangelo,  Lorenzo  Ghiberti,  Giovanni 
Bellini,  Leonardo  da  Vinci  and  Eaff  aelle,  were  all  of  German 
birth  or  ancestry.  He  admits  that  this  may  be  merely  mis- 
placed erudition,  or  "stuff  and  twaddle."  His  point  is  that 
it  is  characteristic,  that  it  is  taken  seriously  in  Germany, 
and  that  it  was  gravely  noticed  in  some  of  the  oldest  and 
most  respectable  German  reviews.  He  quotes  again  the 
author  of  the  "Foundations  of  the  XIX  Century/*  who 
says,  apropos  of  the  overrunning  of  the  Holy  Eoman  Em- 
pire by  the  Germans : 

"We  can  regret  only  one  thing — that  the  German  did  not, 
everywhere  his  conquering  arm  preyed,  exterminate  more  com- 
pletely," and  that  consequently  the  Latins  "gradually  recovered 
wide  territories  from  the  only  quickening  influence  of  pure 
blood  and  unbroken  youth,  in  fact,  from  the  control  of  the 
highest  talent."  Elsewhere  the  same  writer  laments  that  Italy 
"is  lost,  irredeemably  lost,  because  it  lacks  the  inner  driving 
power,  the  greatness  of  soul  which  would  fit  its  talent.  This 
power  conies  from  Race  alone.  Italy  had  it  as  long  as  it  pos- 
sessed Germans." 

Reich  says  that  Friedrich  Lange,  erstwhile  editor  of  the 
Tagliche  Rundschau,  has  gone  so  far  as  to  invent  and 
preach  a  species  of  "German  religion"  (Deutsche  Religion), 


38  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

and  from  many  pulpits  it  has  been  announced  that  "the 
German  people  is  the  elect  of  God,  and  its  enemies  are  the 
enemies  of  the  Lord." 

He  quotes  from  the  "Vorwarts"   an  extract  from   an 
oration  by  the  theologian,  Lezius : 

"Solomon  has  said:  'Do  not  be  too  good;  do  not  be  too  just.' 
The  Polish  press  should  be  simply  annihilated.  All  Polish  so- 
cieties should  be  suppressed,  without  the  slightest  apology 
being  made  for  such  a  measure.  This  summary  procedure 
should  be  likewise  applied  to  the  French  and  Banish  press,  as 
well  as  to  the  societies  of  Alsace,  Lorraine  and  Schleswig- 
Holstein.  Especially  should  no  consideration  whatever  be 
shown  to  anything  relating  to  the  Poles.  The  Constitution 
should  be  altered  with  regard  to  the  latter.  The  Poles  should 
be  looked  upon  as  helots.  They  should  be  allowed  but  three 
privileges:  to  pay  taxes,  serve  in  the  army,  and  shut  their 
jaws"  (sic). 

He  (Keich)  supports  his  views  by  the  statement  of  the 
Russian  novelist,  Dostoiewski,  who  writes : 

"Chauvinism,  pride,  and  an  unlimited  confidence  in  their 
own  strength  have  intoxicated  the  Germans  since  the  war 
(1870).  This  people,  that  has  so  rarely  been  a  conqueror  and 
has  so  often  been  conquered,  had  all  of  a  sudden  beaten  the 
nation  that  had  humiliated  all  the  other  nations.  ...  On  the 
other  hand,  the  fact  that  Germany,  but  yesterday  all  parceled 
out,  has  been  able  in  so  short  a  time  to  develop  so  strong  a  po- 
litical organization,  might  well  lead  the  Germans  to  believe 
that  they  are  about  to  enter  on  a  new  phase  of  brilliant  develop- 
ment. This  conviction  has  resulted  in  making  the  German  not 
only  Chauvinistic  and  conceited,  but  nighty  as  well;  it  is  not 
only  the  Teutonic  grocer  and  shoemaker  now  who  are  over- 
confident, but  professors,  eminent  scientists,  and  even  the  min- 
isters themselves  as  well." 

"No  wonder  that  the  arrogance  of  the  'Elect  Ones  of  God* 
comes  out  at  every  possible  and  impossible  occasion.  When 
Bismarck  was  asked  what  he  would  do  should  some  one  hun- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  39 

dred  thousand  British  soldiers  be  landed  on  the  north  coast  of 
Germany  in  case  of  a  war  with  Great  Britain,  France  and 
Germany,  he  replied:  *I  should  have  them  arrested  by  the 
police.' " 

He  continues : 

"Can  one  wonder,  under  such  circumstances,  that  the  Kaiser 
a  few  years*  ago,  at  the  celebration  of  the  two  hundredth  anni- 
versary of  the  foundation  of  the  Kingdom  of  Prussia,  ex- 
claimed: 'Nothing  must  be  settled  in  this  world  without  the 
intervention  of  Germany  and  of  the  German  Emperor.' " 

He  might  have  added  the  following : 

"Only  one  is  master  of  this  country.  That  is  I.  Who  op- 
poses me  I  shall  crush  to  pieces.  .  .  .  Sic  volo,  sio  jubeo. 
.  .  .  We  Hohenzollerns  take  our  crown  from  God  alone,  and 
to  God  alone  we  are  responsible  in  the  fulfilment  of  our  duty. 
.  .  .  Suprema  lex  regis  voluntas"  (17)  J.  Ellis  Barker.  (18) 

He  might  also  have  quoted  Professor  Kudolf  Eucken,  of 
the  University  of  Jena,  a  leader  of  German  ethical  thought : 

"To  us  more  than  any  other  nation  is  intrusted  the  true 
structure  of  human  existence;  as  an  intellectual  people  we  have, 
irrespective  of  creeds,  worked  for  soul  depth  in  religion,  for  sci- 
entific thoroughness.  .  .  .  All  this  constitutes  possessions 
of  which  mankind  cannot  be  deprived;  possessions,  the  loss  of 
which  would  make  life  and  effort  purposeless  to  mankind."  (19) 

Eucken  has  not  since  changed  his  mind.     In  January, 
1915,  he  writes:  (20) 

"This  war  is  not  only  a  struggle  between  certain  nations,  but 
also  between  certain  forms  of  culture.  We  are  fighting  for  the 
maintenance  and  spreading  of  the  special  form  of  culture  which 


40  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

our  nature  has  implanted  and  the  whole  course  of  our  history 
has  developed  in  us 

"Thus  it  is  that  we  have  raised  religion,  philosophy,  educa- 
tion, music  and  poetry  to  lofty  heights.  We  have  achieved  such 
great  things  in  the  world  because  we  put  our  soul  into  our 
work.  Because  we  did  not  seek  externals,  but  ourselves,  in 
culture,  it  became  for  us  a  matter  of  deepest  earnest 

"Mankind  at  this  point  needs  German  methods.  However 
much  our  opponents  may  rail  against  us  just  now,  they  will 
eventually  be  forced  to  make  use  of  us  for  their  spiritual  pres- 
ervation." 

The  Berlin  Deutsche  Tageszeitung  urges  the  necessity  of 
forcing  the  German  language  on  the  whole  world. 

"It  is  a  crying  necessity,"  the  Berlin  paper  says,  "that  Ger- 
man should  replace  English  as  the  world  language.  Should 
the  English  language  be  victorious  and  become  the  world  lan- 
guage the  culture  of  mankind  will  stand  before  a  closed  door 
and  the  death  knell  will  sound  for  civilization." 

After  talking  of  the  "moral  decay"  of  Great  Britain  and 
the  "fearful  brutalizing  influences  and  complete  animaliza- 
tion  of  the  human  species"  in  "every  land  where  the 
English  language  is  spoken"  the  Deutsche  Tageszeitung 
continues : 

"Here  we  have  the  reason  why  it  is  necessary  for  the  Ger- 
man, and  with  him  the  German  language,  to  conquer.  And  the 
victory  once  won,  be  it  now  or  be  it  one  hundred  years  hence, 
there  remains  a  task  for  the  German  than  which  none  is  more 
important,  that  of  forcing  the  German  tongue  on  the  world. 
On  all  men,  not  those  belonging  to  the  more  cultured  races 
only,  but  on  men  of  all  colors  and  nationalities,  the  German 
language  acts  as  a  blessing  which,  coming  direct  from  the  hand 
of  God,  sinks  into  the  heart  like  a  precious  balm  and  en- 
nobles it. 

"English,  the  bastard  tongue  of  the  canting  island  pirates, 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF -THE  WAS  41 

must  be  swept  from  the  place  it  has  usurped  and  forced  back 
into  the  remotest  corners  of  Britain  until  it  has  returned  to  its 
original  elements  of  an  insignificant  pirate  dialect." 
The  feelings  which  this  last  amiable  suggestion  excited 
in  the  minds  of  Americans  have  nowhere  been  better  ex- 
pressed than  by  Miss  Eepplier  (21),  who,  after  remarking 
that  every  nation  holds  its  own  speech  infinitely  dear,  and 
believes  it  to  be  infinitely  superior  to  the  speech  of  other 
and  less  favored  countries,  continues : 

"Conquering  races  have  recognized  the  supreme  importance 
of  forcing  their  tongue  upon  the  conquered,  who,  in  their  turn, 
have  rebelled  with  bitterness  against  this  finality  of  defeat. 
For  centuries  Ireland  has  striven  to  preserve  a  language  which 
has  no  longer  a  vital  part  to  play.  Alsace  has  cherished  with 
pathetic  pride  and  tenderness  the  speech  she  was  bidden  to 
forego.  Thirty  years  after  the  surrender  of  Strasburg  a  visitor 
could  hear  no  word  save  French  in  the  cafes  and  the  streets. 
If  the  rules  were  rigid,  the  defiance  was  invincible.  German 
for  the  schools,  French  for  the  home.  German  for  officials, 
French  for  the  family.  German  for  protection,  French  for 
pleasure.  German  for  the  stern  realities  of  life,  French  for  the 
mad  hope  which  never  wholly  died. 

"Some  months  ago  a  Berlin  newspaper,  in  happy  anticipation 
of  'der  Tag,'  pealed  forth  a  prophetic  note  of  triumph  for  the 
German  tongue.  Not  conquered  provinces  alone,  we  were  as- 
sured, but  the  whole  wide  world  of  civilization  was  destined  to 
use  this  speech  and  be  the  better  for  it.  'On  men  of  all  colors 
and  nationalities  the  German  language  acts  as  a  blessing, 
which,  coming  direct  from  the  hand  of  God,  sinks  into  the  heart 
like  a  precious  balm  and  ennobles  it.' 

"One  wonders  if  German  text  and  German  script  are  included 
in  the  gift  of  a  too  partial  Providence,  and  if  we  are  'rejecting 
grace'  by  trying  to  elude  them.  One  wonders  apprehensively 
whether,  since  German  is  the  tongue  beloved  of  Heaven,  we  shall 
all  have  to  speak  it  when  we  go  there.  Here  on  earth  this 
'precious  balm*  acts  like  an  irritant  upon  men  and  women  who 
are  not  devout  enough  to  recognize  a  blessing  when  it  is  poured 
on  them.  I  once  spent  a  summer  in  Bavaria  with  a  young 


42  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

American  girl  who  never  forgave  the  Bavarians  for  speaking 
their  own  language.  Every  time  she  heard  the  hated  gutturals, 
she  would  wrinkle  her  pretty  nose  and  say:  'It  ought  to  be 
forbidden  by  law.' 

"As  for  English,  'the  bastard  tongue  of  canting  island 
pirates/  its  day  has  well-nigh  run.  Prussia,  we  are  warned, 
will  force  it  back  into  the  remotest  corners  of  Britain,  'until  it 
has  returned  to  its  original  elements  of  an  insignificant  pirate 
dialect.'  The  fact  that  corrupt  variations  of  this  dialect  are 
stammered  fitfully  by  8,000,000  of  people  in  Canada  and 
97,000,000  of  people  in  the  United  States,  need  not  be  taken 
into  account.  We  know  that  nothing  is  impossible  to  heaven; 
and  if  the  'precious  balm'  of  German  is  going  to  be  spilled  into 
our  hearts,  we  must  resign  ourselves  to  our  mercies.  The 
jargon  of  Shakespeare,  the  broken  utterances  of  Milton,  and 
Keats,  and  Wordsworth,  ^will,  in  the  happy  years  to  come,  be 
deciphered  by  droning  philologists,  who  may  supply  a  key  to 
certain  simple  passages  or  shake  despairing  heads  over  these 
rude  relics  of  piracy,  these  pages 

'full  of  sound  and  fury, 
Signifying  nothing/  " 

Major-General  von  Disfurth  (retired),  in  an  article  con- 
tributed to  the  Hamburg  Naehricliten,  writes  as  follows : 

"No  object  whatever  can  be  served  by  taking  any  notice  of 
the  accusations  of  barbarity  leveled  against  Germany  by  her 
foreign  critics.  We  owe  no  explanations  to  anyone.  Whatever 
act  is  committed  by  our  troops  for  the  purpose  of  discouraging, 
defeating  and  destroying  the  enemy  is  a  brave  act  and  fully 
justified.  Germany  stands  the  supreme  arbiter  of  her  own 
methods.  It  is  no  consequence  whatever  if  all  the  monuments 
ever  created,  all  the  pictures  ever  painted,  all  the  buildings  ever 
erected  by  the  great  architects  of  the  world  be  destroyed,  if  by 
their  destruction  we  promoted  Germany's  victory.  War  is  war. 
The  ugliest  stone  placed  to  mark  the  burial  of  a  German  grena- 
dier is  a  more  glorious  monument  than  all  the  cathedrals  of 
Europe  put  together.  They  call  us  barbarians.  What  of  it? 
We  scorn  them  and  their  abuse. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  43 

"For  my  part,  I  hope  that  in  this  war  we  have  merited  the 
title,  'barbarians.'  Let  neutral  peoples  and  our  enemies  cease 
their  empty  chatter,  which  may  well  be  compared  to  the  twitter 
of  birds.  Let  them  cease  to  talk  of  the  Cathedral  of  Rheims, 
and  of  all  the  churches  and  all  the  castles  in  France  which  have 
shared  its  fate.  Our  troops  must  achieve  victory.  What  else 
matters  ?" 

I  am  not  certain  that,  in  spite  of  the  crude  brutality  of 
this  statement,  it  is  not  to  be  preferred  to  the  oily  hypocrisy 
of  some  of  the  other  German  defenders.  For  example,  in 
an  address  at  New  Bochelle,  in  this  country,  Dr.  Dernburg 
is  reported  (22)  to  have  said:  "We  Germans  love  the 
French  and  Belgians,  who  were  forced  into  the  war."  The 
American  paper  which  quotes  this  goes  on  sarcastically : 

"This  explains  why  the  British  are  fighting  so  desperately. 

"Judging  from  the  experiences  of  France  and  Belgium,  only 
a  rugged  and  husky  nation  can  survive  German  affection.  After 
the  first  demonstration  of  German  love  toward  Belgium,  Great 
Britain  naturally  decided  that  it  was  better  to  fight.  Otherwise 
the  Germans  might  take  a  notion  to  love  the  British,  too. 

"Certainly,  if  the  Germans  love  the  French  and  Belgians,  as 
Doctor  Dernburg  says,  the  British  can  hardly  be  blamed  for  pre- 
ferring German  hatred,  as  giving  them  at  least  a  fighting 
chance.'5' 

Professor  von  Leyen,  writing  in  the  Frankfurter 
Zeitung,  says:  (23) 

"There  are  the  neutral  nations.  Most  of  them  side  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  English,  Russians,  and  French.  Most  of  them 
entertain  hostile  feelings  against  Germany.  We  do  not  need 
them.  They  are  not  necessary  to  our  happiness  nor  to  our  more 
material  interests.  Let  us  ban  them  from  our  houses  and  our 
tables.  Let  us  make  them  feel  that  we  despise  them.  They 
must  understand  that  they  are  condemned  to  be  left  out  in 
the  cold  just  because  they  do  not  merit  German  approval. 


44  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

Germany  must  and  will  stand  alone.  The  Germans  are  the  salt 
of  earth;  they  will  fulfill  their  destiny,  which  is  to  rule  the 
world  and  to  control  other  nations  for  the  benefit  of  mankind." 

Professor  Adolph  Lasson,  a  German  Privy  Councillor 
and  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  Berlin  University,  writes : 

"A  man  who  is  not  a  German  knows  nothing  of  Germany. 
We  are  morally  and  intellectually  superior  beyond  all  com- 
parison as  are  our  organizations  and  our  institutions." 

As  to  the  facts  bearing  upon  this  preposterous  over- 
valuation of  German  achievement,  I  shall  have  something 
to  say  later,  but  now  my  object  is  to  present  a  small 
portion  of  the  existing  evidence  as  to  the  state  of  mind 
which,  pervading  all  Germany,  did  so  much  to  bring  on 
the  war. 

John  Jay  Chapman  deals  trenchantly  with  the  subject  of 
Germany's  mental  condition:  (24) 

"A  perception  of  their  insanity  began  to  dawn  on  us  in  the 
first  days  of  the  war,  when  the  Imperial  Chancellor  propounded 
his  novel  theories  as  to  the  binding  character  of  treaties.  These 
German  doctrines  chilled  us.  They  prevented  us  from  sympa- 
thizing with  the  magnificent  display  of  German  patriotism 
which  accompanied  the  crime  against  Belgium.  Soon  after 
this  the  Teutonic  philosophy  of  extermination  was  further  re- 
vealed to  us  in  the  orders  of  the  commanders,  in  the  actual  con- 
duct of  the  troops,  and  also  in  the  books  about  Germany  which 
we  all  began  to  read  at  this  period. 

"We  now  discovered  that  the  literature  of  Pan-Teutonism, 
which,  up  to  this  time,  we  had  taken  to  be  a  sort  of  bad  joke, 
was  a  very  serious  matter — representing  as  it  did  Unreason  En- 
throned. 

"Pan-Teutonism  had  been  teaching  that  Germany  must  save 
mankind  through  bloodshed.  In  a  private  person  such  a  belief 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  45 

would  lead  to  his  incarceration;  but  so  many  books  are  pub- 
lished nowadays,  and  everyone  is  so  inured  to  extravagant  argu- 
ments, that  no  one  objects  to  Unreason  in  a  book.  There  is  a 
kind  of  squint  of  insanity — of  the  malice  of  the  neurotic  in- 
valid— which  accompanies  the  text  in  much  Pan-German  litera- 
ture. The  author  passes  from  obvious  truths  to  obvious  con- 
tradictions without  knowing  that  he  has  made  a  transition. 
The  author,  moreover,  is  more  sure  he  is  right  than  a  sane  man 
ever  is;  and  when  he  wishes  to  be  impressive  he  runs  into  mega- 
lomania. These  characteristics  of  a  madman,  ( 1 )  unconscious 
passage  from  reason  to  unreason,  (2)  certitude,  and  (3)  mega- 
lomania, are  to  be  found  in  all  the  German  war  literature. 
Strangely  enough,  the  turn  of  phrase  and  tone  of  mind  are  alike 
in  the  writings  of  the  learned  and  of  the  vulgar.  The  war 
spirit  speaks  in  a  war  tongue.  Both  the  literati  of  Germany 
and  the  man-in-the-street  in  Germany  blaze  with  passion  and 
vociferate  with  conviction.  To  them  their  phrases  are  full  of 
sacred  truth;  to  them  religion  and  piety,  patriotism,  profound 
thought,  and  holy  inspiration  live  in  the  words  they  utter. 

"To  my  mind,  there  is  immense  psychological  interest  in 
these  exhibitions  of  pure,  unadulterated  patriotism.  Their  sin- 
cerity penetrates  us;  but  the  idea  they  convey  is  zero.  Their 
message  is,  indeed,  'a  tale  told  by  an  idiot,  full  of  sound  and 
fury,  signifying  nothing.'  Such  is  the  message  of  any  mere 
race  patriotism,  of  any  patriotism  which  obliges  the  rest  of 
the  world  to  be  subdued  before  it  can  receive  the  benefits  of 
the  pretended  dispensation.  Zero  is  the  substance  and  the  sym- 
bol of  race  patriotism.  All  the  piety  and  enthusiasm  with 
which  it  is  offered  to  the  world,  all  the  gunboats  and  bloodshed 
which  herald  it  are  powerless  to  raise  the  intellectual  value  of 
this  emotion  above  the  zero  point." 

Prof.  Ostwald,  a  Nobel  prize  winner  (as  a  chemist),  and 
a  well-known  ©erman  scientist,  says  (25)  that  the  most 
profound  cause  of  the  war 

"lies  in  the  fear  entertained  by  our  enemies  of  the  power,  un- 
precedented in  history,  with  which  Germany  has  put  into 
practice  her  great  ideal  of  social  efficiency — an  ideal  which 


46  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

Germany  by  this  very  war  proposes  to  realize  in  the  future 
more  completely  than  ever  before.  They  talk  of  German  mili- 
tarism; it  is  possible,  I  admit,  that  the  hostility  which  Ger- 
many is  finding  to-day  in  all  parts  of  the  world  was  created  by 
the  development  of  German  militarism;  but  it  is  just  that 
militarism  which  constitutes  one  of  the  most  significant  ex- 
pressions of  the  German  power  of  organization  or  social  effi- 
ciency. Germany,  thanks  to  her  genius  for  organization  or 
social  efficiency,  has  attained  a  stage  of  civilization  far  higher 
than  that  of  all  other  peoples.  This  war  will  in  the  future  com- 
pel these  other  peoples  to  participate,  under  the  form  of  Ger- 
man social  efficiency,  in  a  civilization  higher  than  their  own. 
Among  our  enemies  the  Russians,  in  brief,  are  still  in  the 
period  of  the  undisciplined  tribe,  while  the  French  and  the 
English  have  only  attained  the  degree  of  cultural  development 
which  we  ourselves  left  behind  fifty  years  ago.  Their  stage  of 
culture  is  that  of  individualism;  but  above  that  stage  lies  the 
stage  of  organization  or  social  efficiency,  and  it  is  this  stage 
which  Germany  has  reached  to-day." 

Treitschke  said,  years  ago : 

"Then  when  the  German  flag  flies  over  and  protects  this  vast 
Empire,  to  whom  will  belong  the  sceptre  of  the  universe? 
What  nation  will  impose  its  wishes  on  the  other  enfeebled  and 
decadent  peoples?  Will  it  not  be  Germany  that  will  have  the 
mission  to  ensure  the  peace  of  the  world?  Russia,  that  im- 
mense colossus,  still  in  process  of  formation,  and  with  feet  of 
clay,  will  be  absorbed  in  its  home  and  economic  difficulties. 
England,  stronger  in  appearance  than  in  reality,  will,  without 
any  doubt,  see  her  colonies  detach  themselves  from  her  and 
exhaust  themselves  in  fruitless  struggles.  France,  given  over 
to  internal  dissensions  and  the  strife  of  parties,  will  sink  into 
hopeless  decadence.  As  to  Italy,  she  will  have  her  work  cut  out 
to  ensure  a  crust  of  bread  to  her  children.  .  .  .  The  future 
belongs  to  Germany,  to  which  Austria  will  attach  herself  if 
she  wishes  to  survive." 

.Reich,  who  quotes  this,  gives  many  other  quotations  to 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  47 

support  his  main  thesis,  judgment  on  which  I  must  now 
leave  to  my  readers.  It  was  as  follows,  and  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  it  was  written  more  than  seven  years  ago : 

"The  actions  of  a  nation  like  the  Germans  are,  in  the  first 
place,  influenced  by  their  state  of  mind;  and,  given  that  that 
state  of  mind  in  Germany  is  now  one  bordering  on  absolute 
megalomania,  or  the  most  morbid  form  of  self-conceit  and 
swelled-headedness,  it  is  safe  to  conclude  that  their  actions, 
too,  will  soon  assume  forms  of  the  most  daring  self-assertiveness 
and  aggression."  (26) 

In  some  directions  the  ignorance  of  the  German  writers 
shared,  as  later  events  showed,  by  the  German  diplomats — 
is  astounding. 

General  Bernhardi's  knowledge  of  current  history  may 
be  estimated  by  the  fact  that  he  assumes  (1)  that  trade 
rivalry  makes  a  war  probable  between  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States,  (2)  that  he  believes  the  Indian  princes 
and  people  likely  to  revolt  against  Britain  should  she  be 
involved  in  war,  and  (3)  that  he  expects  her  self-governing 
Colonies  to  take  such  an  opportunity  of  severing  their 
connection  with  her ! 

"General  Bernhardi  invoked  History,  the  ultimate  court  of 
appeal.  He  appeals  to  Caesar.  To  Caesar  let  him  go.  Die 
Weltgeschicte  ist  das  Weltgericht — World  history  is  the 
World  tribune. 

"History  declares  that  no  nation,  however  great,  is  entitled 
to  try  to  impose  its  type  of  civilization  on  others.  No  race, 
not  even  the  Teutonic  or  the  Anglo-Saxon,  is  entitled  to  claim 
the  leadership  of  humanity.  Each  people  has  in  its  time 
contributed  something  that  was  distinctively  its  own,  and  the 
world  is  far  richer  thereby  than  if  any  one  race,  however 
gifted,  had  established  a  permanent  ascendancy. 

"The  world  advances  not,  as  the  Bernhardi  school  suppose, 
only  or  even  mainly  by  fighting.  It  advances  mainly  by  think- 


48  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

ing,  and  by  a  process  of  reciprocal  teaching  and  learning;  by  a 
continuous  and  unconscious  co-operation  of  all  its  strongest 
and  finest  minds. 

"Each  race — Hellenic,  Italic,  Celtic,  Teutonic,  Iberian,  Sla- 
vonic— has  something  to  give,  each  something  to  learn;  and 
when  their  blood  is  blent  the  mixed  stock  may  combine  the 
gifts  of  both. 

"The  most  progressive  races  have  been  those  who  combined 
willingness  to  learn  with  a  strength  which  enabled  them  to 
receive  without  loss  to  their  own  quality,  retaining  their  primal 
vigour,  but  entering  into  the  labours  of  others,  as  the  Teutons 
who  settled  within  the  dominions  of  Rome  profited  by  the  les- 
sons of  the  old  civilization."  (27) 

John  Jay  Chapman,  in  his  admirable  and  useful  collec- 
tion of  the  utterances  of  representative  Germans  ("Deutsch- 
land  iiber  Alles"),  which  he  has  compiled,  analyzed  and 
illuminated  by  pertinent  and  often  eloquent  comment, 
deals  with  this  subject  of  German  megalomania,  so  fully 
and  interestingly  that  I  may  dismiss  it  with  his  remarks 
in  his  chapter  on  "The  Genesis  of  Madness :" 

"I  will  cite  a  few  grotesque  expressions  from  Bernhardi, 
because  they  could  not  have  been  used  by  a  man  who  knew 
what  the  struggle  for  liberty  of  opinion  in  Western  Europe  had 
consisted  in:  'There  is  no  nation  which  knows  how  to  unite 
so  harmoniously  ( as  the  German  does )  the  freedom  of  the  intel- 
lectual and  the  restraint  of  the  practical  life  on  the  path  of  free 
and  natural  development.'  These  be  fine  words ;  but  just  where 
the  ' freedom  of  the  intellectual'  should  end,  and  the  'restraint 
of  the  practical'  should  begin  in  each  case — this  is  the  question 
that  has  puzzled  the  world,  and  sent  the  martyrs  to  the  pyre 
and  the  statesmen  to  the  scaffold.  Again:  'This  independence 
of  the  individual  within  the  Umits  marked  out  "by  the  interests 
of  the  State  forms  the  necessary  complement  of  the  wide  exten- 
sion of  the  central  power,  and  assures  an  ample  scope  to  a 
liberal  development  of  all  our  social  conditions.'  This  is  the 
chatter  of  a  parrot. 

"So  also  is  the  following  statement  of  what  education  ought 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  49 

to  teach.  'The  State  should  teach  that  the  mind  which  thinks 
only  of  itself  perishes  in  feeble  susceptibility,  but  that  moral 
worth  grows  up  only  in  the  love  of  the  Fatherland  and  for  the 
State,  which  is  the  haven  of  every  faith  and  the  home  of  justice 
and  honourable  freedom  of  purpose.'  I  have  italicized  the  words 
which  show  the  feebleness  of  the  German  intellect  in  these 
fields  of  thought. 

"The  following  argument  could  hardly  have  been  put  forth 
seriously  in  any  country  where  argument  was  an  instrument  of 
government;  Count  von  Bernstorff  insisted  that  Germany  had 
not  utilized  the  Belgian  route  because  it  was  the  quickest  and 
easiest  into  France,  but  had  gone  through  Belgium  only  because 
she  was  forced  to  act  on  the  defensive.  Germany  knew  that  some 
day  France  was  going  to  invade  Belgium;  but  France  could 
wait;  Germany  could  not  wait.  Thus  it  was  really  France 
that  began  the  war. 

"A  man  who  had  spent  his  youth  in  the  debating  club  would 
not  have  presented  such  a  case  as  this  to  the  world;  but  in  a 
tyranny  there  is  no  distinction  between  dogma  and  argument. 
The  official  view  is  propounded  and  that  is  enough. 

"Bernhardi's  books  will  always  be  valuable  as  the  best 
short  explanation  of  the  war.  They  give  the  mind  of  fhe 
Teuton  in  1914.  They  have  done  more  towards  explaining  the 
disease  which  is  now  ravaging  the  German  intellect  than  all 
the  rest  of  German  literature  taken  together.  Moreover,  Bern- 
hardi's books  will  always  have  a  specific  psychopathic  interest. 
The  future  student  will  handle  them  with  curiosity,  saying: 
'Sixty-four  million  people  once,  and  for  a  short  time,  believed 
these  things.' 

"The  keynote  of  the  German  creed  is  as  follows :  War  is  the 
natural  state  of  man,  and  'evokes  the  noblest  activities  of 
human  nature.'  'The  brutal  incidents  inseparable  from  every 
war  vanish  completely  in  the  idealism  of  the  main  results.' 
These  beliefs,  it  should  be  noticed,  give  respectability  to  the 
German  designs  against  France.  They  lend  the  light  of  con- 
science and  religion  to  a  crime,  and  invoke  a  great  principle 
to  cover  a  piece  of  private  vengeance.  The  Germans,  being 
a  highly  bookish  and  sophisticated  people,  require  good  motives 
for  bloodshed.  The  Holy  Ghost  is  therefore  summoned.  The 
sin  of  feebleness  is,  it  appears,  'the  political  sin  against  the 
Holy  Ghost.' 
4 


50  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"In  order  to  make  it  seem  probable  that  the  Germans  will 
win  in  their  war,  the  French  and  English  are  depicted  as 
decrepit,  outworn  peoples,  degenerate  Romans,  etc.,  whereas  the 
Germans  are  the  young  blood  of  the  world.  Tl^e  British  play 
out-of-door  games,— a  sure  sign  of  effeminacy;  whereas  the 
Germans  sing,  and  play  on  the  violin — sure  proofs  of  manly 
endowment.  The  Germans  are  a  'chosen  people'  and  the  great 
men  of  the  past  have  all  been  Germans..  The  most  learned  au- 
thor of  this  school  proves  that  Christ  and  Dante  were  Teutonic 
characters.  All  of  these  crotchets  have  been  believed  in  by  the 
illuminati  of  Germany,  by  her  professors  and  doctors,  poets, 
priests,  and  leaders  of  thought.  Why  have  they  been  thus 
believed?  Because  they  have  been  handed  out  by  the  govern- 
mental central  authority,  by  the  source  of  opinion.  Folly, 
blasphemy,  or  nonsense,  when  sanctioned  by  the  Government, 
becomes  to  the  Germans  religion.  Is  it  not  strange  that  this 
nation,  endowed  with  all  the  talents  but  one,  has  been  done 
to  death  by  the  lack  of  that  small  linch-pin — political  common 
sense?  Their  sin  has  found  them  out.  Their  one  weakness 
has  ruined  all  the  fabric  of  their  strength. 

"In  Germany  the  State  appoints  the  professors  in  the  uni- 
versities; and  thus  during  the  last  thirty  years  of  military 
ascendancy,  only  militants  have '  been  appointed.  There  has 
been  no  future  for  learned  men  unless  they  favored  militarism. 
And  nevertheless  a  certain  ancient  prestige  hung  about  the 
skirts  of  learning  which  the  government  sought  to  use  when 
the  war  broke  out.  The  Kaiser,  therefore,  fired  off  all  the 
guns  of  culture  in  a  sort  of  parlour  salute,  in  which  incense  was 
used  instead  of  gun-powder.  There  is  probably  not  a  name  of 
note  in  German  letters  which  is  not  to  be  found  at  the  bottom 
of  a  war-cry,  or  of  a  cry  for  blood  and  vengeance.  The  sav- 
agery of  these  literary  tricoteuses,  which  has  so  shocked  the 
world,  comes  from  their  indorsement  of  whatever  is  being  done 
by  the  military.  Thus,  one  reads  in  one  column  of  a  newspaper 
that  the  Germans  have  deported  into  Germany  forty-five 
hundred  French  boys  between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  seventeen, 
drawing  them  from  Noyon  and  other  French  towns  under  Ger- 
man occupation.  One  thinks  of  how  the  parents  of  these  boys 
must  feel;  one  wonders  what  century  one  is  living  in;  one 
recalls  the  words  of  Bismarck,  that  the  Prussians  must  'bleed 
France  white.'  One  remembers  Bernhardi's  remarks  that  France 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  51 

must  be  so  weakened  that  she  can  'never  cross  our  path  again/ 
In  another  column  of  the  same  paper  there  is  a  passionate 
threnody  of  the  poet  Wolfkehl,  saying  that  'the  war  came  from 
God';  that  its  purpose  is  'to  save  the  European  soul,'  and  that 
its  horrors  are  necessary.  Of  all  these  horrors  the  words  of 
the  poet  are  the  worst. 

"This  war  has  been  made  by  the  intellectuals ;  the  philosophy 
of  it  is  a  study-bred  thing,  like  the  new  German  bomb-shells. 
That  philosophy  of  destruction,  which  lies  beneath  both  the 
siege-guns  and  the  pamphlets,  is  a  tissue  of  super-sophistica- 
tions, by  which  the  old-time  and  gross  passions  of  murder,  theft, 
lust,  hatred,  and  a  certain  nameless  cruelty  (which  is  new  to 
the  world  and  worse  than  all  the  rest),  have  been  let  loose  on 
those  nations  which  happen  to  live  next  to  Germany.  The 
hell  of  an  insane  sophistication  "burns  behind  this  war  in  the 
German  universities;  and  the  hell  of  murdered  women  and 
children  walk  before  it  through  Belgium.  This  war  and  its  lit- 
erature are  all  one  thing.  We  must  watch  both  of  them  to  get  a 
vision  of  modern  Germany.  When  we  see  the  total  populations 
of  cities  fleeing  before  the  advance  of  the  German  Army  in 
Belgium,  we  must  examine  the  creed  of  the  learned  Teuton. 

"Crack  open  a  bit  of  Germany  anywhere.  Doctor  Lenard, 
Professor  of  Physics  at  Heidelberg,  thinks  that  Westminster 
Abbey  and  the  tomb  of  Shakespeare  ought  to  be  destroyed.  The 
brain  of  a  people  is  ignited  and  is  burning  up  with  the  rest 
of  the  Teutonic  combustibles.  We  can  not  put  out  either  of 
them,  but  must  let  them  crackle  and  give  out  blast  after  blast, 
till  the  panic  is  over.  Then  we  shall  be  able  to  look  about  us 
and  find  out  how  much  is  left  of  the  German  intelligence. 

"To  recapitulate: — Germany  has  gone  mad  through  dwelling 
on  her  imaginary  wrongs.  This  came  about  because  of  the 
lack  of  political  training  in  Germany,  which  left  the  citizen 
at  the  mercy  of  Government  officials  for  his  private  opinions. 
The  learned  and  eloquent  classes  thus  became  the  tools  of  a 
military  organization.  The  result  has  been  an  era  of  panic  and 
destructive  insanity  of  which  this  war  is  a  sign." 

While  opinions  differ  as  to  the  personal  responsibility  of 
the  Kaiser  ,for  this  war,  it  seems  to  me  that  he  so  fully 
typifies  in  his  own  character,  actions  and  behavior,  the 


52  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

megalomania  of  the  nation  that  it  is  nothing  less  than 
absurd  to  describe  him  as  reluctantly  pushed  into  the  war 
arid  as  struggling  until  the  last  moment  for  peace. 

The  Kaiser  is  in  all  probability  a  neuropsychopathic, 
said  to  have  a  chronic  and  recurring  infection  of  the  middle 
ear  (a  not  unknown  cause  of  grave  cerebral  disease),  and 
evincing  many  symptoms  of  the  condition  known  as  para- 
noia, in  which  there  are  usually  present  more  or  less  definite 
systematized  delusions,  the  other  mental  processes  remain- 
ing approximately  normal.  If  in  such  case  the  insane 
premises  of  the  paranoiac  are  admitted,  his  conclusions  will 
often  legitimately  follow.  If  the  Kaiser  is  Kaiser  by 
Divine  decree,  by  the  direct  appointment  of  God,  as  he  has 
repeatedly  asserted,  he  cannot  be  blamed  for  thinking,  as 
he  has  often  shown  that  he  does  think,  that  whatever  he  does 
is  right.  But  is  it  possible  in  the  year  1915  that  a  quite 
sane  person  can  believe,  as  the  Kaiser  surely  does  believe, 
that  he  is  God's  special  appointee — appointed  to  rule  over 
and  guide  the  destinies  of  sixty  millions  of  people  ?  I  have 
no  doubt  the  Miinsterbergs  will  have  some  answer  to  that 
question  that  will — to  them — be  psychologically  satisfying. 
But  I  defy  them  to  answer  it  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
American  people. 

That  this  mental  condition  is  compatible  with  unusual 
ability,  with  a  high  degree  of  personal  charm,  with  the 
efficient  performance  of  work  and  discharge  of  duties  out- 
side the  sphere  of  delusion,  has  been  repeatedly  and  abun- 
dantly shown  and  is  a  matter  of  everyday  experience  with 
alienists. 

The  history  of  the  world  also  presents  many  examples  of 
individuals  not  entirely  sane,  like  Joan  of  Arc,  who  were 
able  greatly  to  influence,  largely  through  their  profound 
belief  in  themselves  and  their  cause,  the  course  of  human 
events. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  53 

"The  Kaiser  does  not  believe  in  representative  government 
for  Germany.  He  does  not  believe  in  democracy,  at  least  not 
for  Germany.  Neither  did  Bismarck.  Bismarck  doubtless 
believed  a  good  deal  in  Bismarck,  partly  as  the  agent  of  the 
Almighty,  partly  as  Bismarck,  director  of  the  German  people. 
Government  of  Germany  by  Bismarck  through  his  Kaiser  was 
representative  government  of  a  sort,  for  Bismarck,  in  a  way,  was 
representative.  The  Kaiser  does  not  believe  in  that.  He  dis- 
charged Bismarck  at  once.  He  believes  in  government  by  the 
Kaiser  as  the  agent  divinely  appointed  to  govern  the  German 
people.  He  is  not  responsible  to  the  German  people  for  what 
he  does,  but  to  the  Almighty.  He  believes — he  must  believe — 
that  he  is  competent  to  judge  what  is  right  for  Germany  and 
that  when  he  does  it  he  has  God  for  his  ally."  (28) 

One  of  the  best  illustrations  of  the  "delirium  of  gran- 
deur" with  which  the  Kaiser  appears  to  be  afflicted  (and 
with  which  on  account  of  its  frequency  in  ordinary  luna- 
tics all  medical  men  are  familiar)  is  given  in  this  very 
belief  in  his  Divine  vicegerency  and  in  his  constant  and 
familiar  references  to  God  in  his  speeches,  letters  and 
telegrams. 

The  Dean  of  American  letters,,  Mr.  William  D.  Howells, 
has  dealt  so  eloquently  with  this  phase — and  other  phases — 
of  the  Kaiser's  character  (29)  that  I  shall  let  him  continue 
this  answer  to  the  second  portion  of  Question  1 — believing 
that  the  Kaiser  represents  in  an  exaggerated  form  (due 
probably  to  disease),  the  megalomania  of  the  nation,  and 
believing  also  that  what  Mr.  Howells  writes  of  him  repre- 
sents with  equal  truth  the  estimate  of  him  held  to-day  by 
the  large  majority  of  Americans. 

"As  early  as  August  22nd  the  censorship  of  war  news  allowed 
us  to  learn  that  'the  Kaiser  had  ordered  the  Supreme  Council 
of  the  Evangelical  Church  throughout  Germany  to  include  the 
following  prayer  in  the  liturgy  at  all  public  services  during  the 
war:  'Almighty  and  merciful  God  of  the  armies,  we  beseech 


54  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

in  humility  for  Thy  Almighty  aid  for  our  German  fatherland. 
Bless  the  entire  German  war  force.  Lead  us  to  victory  and 
give  us  Thy  grace  that  we  may  show  ourselves  to  be  Christians 
toward  our  enemies.  As  well,  let  us  soon  arrive  at  peace  which 
will  everlastingly  safeguard  our  free  and  independent  Germany.' 

"This  carefully  worded  supplication  must  have  been  instantly 
rushed  to  the  Throne  of  Grace,  to  the  Father  of  Mercies,  to 
Him  without  whose  knowledge  not  even  a  sparrow  falls  to  the 
ground,  and  the  response  might  seem  to  have  been  instant,  for 
we  read  that  on  the  25th  the  Kaiser  wired  his  daughter-in-law, 
the  Crown  Princess: 

"  'I  rejoice  with  thee  over  the  first  victory  of  Wilhelm.  God 
has  been  on  his  side  and  has  most  brilliantly  supported  him. 
To  Him  be  thanks  and  honor.  I  remit  to  Wilhelm  the  Iron 
Cross  of  the  second  and  first  class.  .  .  .  God  protect  and 
succor  my  boys.  Also  in  the  future  God  be  with  thee  and  all 
wives. 

'(Signed)     PAPA  WILHELM.' 

"But  in  some  respects  this  was  apparently  asking  too  much. 
In  spite  of  the  flattering  recognition  of  His  support  of  the 
Crown  Prince.  He  seems  to  have  thought  it  enough  to  be  only 
with  the  Crown  Princess  'in  the  future.'  He  evidently  could 
not  be  bothered  to  look  after  'all  wives,'  for  we  read  that  the 
wives  of  unarmed  peasants  and  citizens  were  driven,  with  their 
children,  from  their  homes  in  a  country  which  Papa  Wilhelm 
was  wasting  with  fire  and  sword  through  a  violation  of  its 
rights  as  a  neutral  nation  and  of  his  own  word  solemnly  given, 
and  went  wandering  beggared  through  their  native  land.  Other 
wives  were  slain  at  their  hearthstones  by  Papa  Wilhelm's  artil- 
lery, or  torn  to  pieces  in  their  beds  by  bombs  dropped  from 
Papa  Wilhelm's  dirigibles  flying  over  sleeping  towns. 

"So  far  as  'all  wives'  were  concerned,  the  Helper  of  the 
widow  and  the  orphan  was  not  so  constant  as  Papa  Wilhelm 
desired,  though  Papa  Wilhelm  had  especially  commended  them 
to  His  care.  Yet  Papa  Wilhelm  did  not  lose  heart,  for  in  a  tele- 
gram of  the  27th  we  find  him  declaring  from  his  headquarters 
on  the  Main,  'Confidence  in  the  irresistible  might  of  our  heroic 
army  and  unshakable  belief  in  the  help  of  a  living  God, 
together  with  the  consciousness  that  we  are  fighting  for  a 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  55 

worthy  cause,  should  give  us  faith  in  an  early  delivery  of 
Germany  from  its  enemies.' 

"It  may  be  that  the  Supreme  Being,  the  'living  God'  as 
the  first  of  living  men  here  handsomely  calls  Him,  was  perhaps 
not  really  so  very  hand-in-glove  with  the  Kaiser.  It  may  be 
that  He  did  not  'brilliantly  support'  the  Crown  Prince  in  battle, 
and  that  it  was  solely  'the  invincible  might  of  his  heroic  army' 
which  gave  the  Kaiser  early  victory.  For  Papa  Wilhelm  had 
been  training  them  in  their  work  of  multiple  murder  for  forty 
years,  incessantly,  relentlessly,  at  the  cost  of  the  best  years  of 
their  youth,  of  their  freedom,  of  whatever  makes  life  sweet  and 
dear.  To  perfect  the  pitiless  machine  into  which  he  turned 
a  kindly  people  he  spared  no  means  known  to  the  art  of  the 
oppressor;  he  sacrificed  to  this  end  truth  and  honor  and  the 
love  of  men ;  he  substituted  the  terror  of  Use  majeste  for  patri- 
otic loyalty;  he  made  revenge  and  hate  the  prime  motives  of 
the  nation  which  he  welded  into  an  adamantine  mass,  to  be 
hurled,  when  the  time  came,  against  another  nation  which  he 
had  schooled  them,  in  the  uttermost  cruelty  of  fear,  to  abhor. 
In  this  work  he  signed  promises  which  trusting  nations  took  for 
treaties  with  all  the  sacred  and  solemn  guarantees,  but  which 
his  ministers  called  'scraps  of  paper'  when  the  convenient  time 
came.  He  made  their  commanders  the  terror  of  the  men,  and 
he  perpetuated  among  the  officers  of  his  army  the  code  of  the 
duel ;  Ijy  his  will  the  law  of  the  sword  became  supreme  against 
the  law  of  the  land  in  any  question  between  soldiers  and  civil- 
ians. He  turned  the  tide  of  civilization  from  its  flow  toward 
peace  and  goodwill,  and  drove  its  stream  back  among  the 
morasses  of  the  past,  where  it  was  choked  with  the  corpses  of 
the  immemorial  dead,  the  embers  of  their  homes,  and  the  ruins 
of  their  altars,  so,  that  when  the  time  came  to  destroy  a  peace- 
ful city  his  soldiers  were  as  ready  to  do  his  will  as  they  were 
to  drive  the  wedge  of  their  bodies  through  the  enemy's  lines 
and  to  fall  in  heaps  that  stayed  their  advance. 

"There  is  no  means  of  telling  just  yet  what  the  effect  of  his 
prayers  has  been  with  the  Heavenly  Father,  or  whether  in  the 
event  they  will  avail  against  the  prayers  of  the  Belgians,  the 
French,  the  English,  and  the  Russians,  beseeching  the  same 
God  for  victory  against  him.  Who,  indeed,  always  excepting  the 
German  Emperor,  may  declare  what  dwells  in  the  will  of  the 
Almighty,  or  what  His  purpose  is?  Will  He  continue  His  bril- 


56  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

liant  support  of  the  Crown  Prince,  or  will  He  lift  up  His  coun- 
tenance and  make  it  to  shine  upon  the  peoples  who  have, 
humanly  speaking,  been  cruelly  outraged  in  all  that  is  dear 
to  civilized  men,  whose  lands  have  been  overrun  by  invading 
armies,  whose  cities  have  been  burned,  whose  fields  have  been 
laid  waste,  whose  wives  and  little  ones  have  been  driven  beg- 
gars into  the  wilderness  which  wanton  invasion  has  made  of 
their  country?  At  the  actual  writing  it  seems  as  if  the 
Creator  of  heaven  and  earth  may  have  thought  twice  concerning 
His  imperial  protege,  and  ceased  to  'bless  the  whole  German 
force.'  Part  of  this  force  is  now  retracing  its  bleeding  steps, 
slowly  indeed,  and  perhaps  not  finally;  its  retreat  may  be 
merely  the  recoil  of  the  wild  beast  for  another  spring  upon  ita 
prey;  but  as  yet  it  does  not  seem  so,  and  humanity  may  begin 
to  breathe  again.  No  one  except  the  Kaiser  may  guess  at  the 
unfathomable  counsels  of  the  Ancient  of  Days." 

After  describing  the  state  of  public  feeling  in  Germany, 
and  the  generally  accepted  and  applauded  plans  for  her 
aggrandizement,  another  writer  says  of  the  Kaiser : 

"The  German  Emperor's  speeches  visualize  the  ideas  of  the 
man  who  has  the  final  power  to  say  how  this  public  sentiment 
and  these  plans  shall  be  used;  and  very  clearly  they  prove 
that  the  Kaiser  feels  no  responsibility  to  any  person,  to  any 
moral  code,  or  to  any  ethical  ideal.  He  is  the  final  arbiter. 

"That  the  Emperor  William  II  has  always  anticipated  the 
world-war  which  is  now  waging — is  more  than  proved  by  the 
extracts  from  His  Majesty's  speeches.  His  very  first  official  act 
upon  coming  to  the  throne  was  to  issue  an  edict  to  the  German 
army,  and  it  was  not  until  some  days  after  that  he  issued  a 
proclamation  'To  my  people.'  To  him  the  soldier  is  far  more 
important  than  the  civilian.  Votes  and  elections  count  for 
nothing. 

"The  German  Emperor's  speeches  are  voluminous.  They 
have  appeared  in  Germany  in  various  forms  and  run  to  several 
volumes.  The  selections  here  given  have  not  been  deliberately 
picked  out  for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  the  Kaiser  has 
assumed  the  leadership  of  the  war  mania  movement.  It  would 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  57 

have  been  impossible  to  have  made  any  selection  which  would 
not  have  pointed  in  the  same  direction. 

The  idea  of  war  is  ever  in  His-  Majesty's  mind,  even  when  he  is 
addressing  himslf  to  purely  pacific  matters.  The  dove  of  peace 
is  always  mated  with  the  German  eagle.  Hfe  Majesty  cannot 
unveil  a  civic1  monument  without  referring  to  the  military  glory 
of  his  ancestors.  He  cannot  address  an  educational  conference 
without  emphasizing  that  in  his  opinion'  the  best  kind  of  educa- 
tion is  that  which  leads  the  youth  of  Germany  to  contemplate 
the  military  achievements*  of  their  forefathers.  He  cannot  pay 
a  compliment  to  the  ruler  of  another  State  without  at  the  same 
time  referring  to  the  bravery  and  chivalry  of  the  other  mon- 
arch's military  forces.  He  cannot  even  preach  a  sermon  without 
referring  to  the  military  exploits  of  the  ancient  Hebrews;  and 
he  cannot  even  pray  without  calling  upon  the  Lord  of  Hosts 
to  lead  the  German  army  to  victory."  (30) 

The  Kaiser  set  on  foot  the  decoration  of  the  "A venue  of 
Victory"  at  Berlin,  drew  up  the  general  plan,  and  person- 
ally selected  the  artists  who  sculptured  the  various  groups. 
At  a  dinner  to  which  these  artists  were  invited,  the  Kaiser 
said: 

"As  I  proclaimed  on  a  former  occasion,  I,  too,  regard  it  as 
my  mission,  in  conformity  with  the  ideas  of  my  parents,  to 
stretch  my  hand  over  my  German  people  and  its  rising  genera- 
tion; to  foster  the  beautiful;  to  develop  art  in  the  life  of  the 
people ;  but  only  in.  fixed  lines  and  within  those  strictly  defined 
limits  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  sense  of  mankind  for  beauty 
and  haraipny."  (January,  1902.)  (31) 

"The  great  ideals  have  become  for  us  Germans  a  permanent 
possession,  while  other  nations  have  more  or  less  lost  them. 
The  German?  nation  is  now  the  only  people  left  which  is»  called 
upon  in  the  first  place  to  protect  and  cultivate  and  promote 
these  great  ideals  .  .  .  ."  (32) 

Speaking  at  a  banquet  of  the  Provincial  Diet  of  Bran- 
denburg, in  February,  1892,  the  Kaiser  said: 


58  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"The  firm  conviction  of  your  sympathy  in  my  labours  gives 
me  renewed  strength  to  persist  in  my  work,  and  to  press  for- 
ward on  the  path  which  Heaven  has  laid  out  for  me.  I  am 
helped  thereto  by  my  feeling  of  responsibility  to  the  Ruler  of 
All,  and  the  firm*  conviction-  that  He,  our  ally  of  Rossbach  and 
Dennewitz,  will  not  leave  me  in  the  lurch.  He  has  given  Him- 
self such  endless  trouble  with  our  old  Mark  and  with  our  House 
that  we  can  assume  that  He  has  not  done  this  for  nothing. 

"The  august  figure  of  our  great  Emperor  William  the  First, 
who  has  passed  from  among  us,  is  always  present  with  us, 
together  with  his  mighty  deeds.  How  were  these  accomplished  ? 
Through  the  unshakable  belief  held  by  my  grandfather  in  the 
mission  intrusted  to  him  by  God,  which  he  combined  with  an 
untiring  zeal  for  duty.  He  was  supported  by  the  Mark  and 
entire  German  Fatherland.  Amid  these  traditions  I  have  grown 
up  and  in  them  I  was  reared  by  him.  I  also  have  the  same 
belief."  (At  the  annual  dinner  of  the  Diet  of  Brandenberg, 
March,  1893.)  (33) 

"May  the  might  of  Germany  become  as  firm  and  as  powerful 
as 'was  once  that  of  the  Roman  world-empire,  so  that  in  the 
future  'I  am  a  German  citizen'  may  be  uttered  with  the  same 
pride  as  was  the  ancient  'Civis  Romanus  sum."  (Saltzburg, 
1900.)  (34) 

It  seems  unnecessary  to  multiply  evidence  that  the 
Kaiser  has  a  form  of  megalomania  that  amounts  to  disease, 
or  that  he,  unfortunately,  in  this  respect,  represents  with 
fair  accuracy,  the  present  frame  of  mind — probably  only 
temporary — of  the  German  nation. 

But  I  shall  add  one  additional  bit  of  testimony,  just  at 
hand.  It  may  be  untrustworthy,  but  it  has  the  earmarks 
of  genuineness. 

An  order  issued  by  "Papa  Wilhelm"  to  his  troops  in  East 
Prussia  is  said  (35)  to  read  in  part  as  follows: 

"Thanks  to  the  valor  of  my  heroes,  France  has  been  severely 
punished.  Belgium,  which  interfered  with  our  attack,  has  been 
added  to  the  glorious  provinces  of  Germany.  From  the  course 


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of  military  events  you  know  that  the  punitive  expedition  into 
Russia  has  also  been  a  brilliant  success. 

"My  heroes,  the  hour  of  trial  has  riow  come  for  you  and 
for  the  whole  of  Germany.  If  Germany  is  dear  to  you — if 
your  families  are  dear  to  you — if  your  culture,  your  faith,  your 
nation,  your  Emperor,  are  dear  to  you,  you  will  offer  the 
enemy  worthy  resistance." 

I  ask  the  reader  to  note  the  crescendo — from  "Germany"' 
through  "families,"  "culture,"  "faith,"  and  the  "nation" 
up  to  the  "Emperor!"  Also  the  announced  addition  of 
Belgium  to  the  "glorious  provinces  of  Germany." 

The  Kaiser  may  not  have  written  this,  but,  if  he  didn't, 
the  author  takes  rank  with  Chatterton.  There  is  a  "con- 
densed novel"  in  those  paragraphs  worthy  of  Bret  Harte 
or  Leacock. 

But,  after  all,  the  question  of  the  exact  mental  condi- 
tion of  the  Kaiser  is  not  of  fundamental  importance.  His 
power  is  unquestioned,  his  leadership  indisputable.  He 
stands  to-day  before  the  world  as  the  embodiment  of  the 
spirit  of  the  school  of  the  Bernhardis  and  Treitschkes.  He 
is  the  apotheosis  of  the  Miinsterberg  idea  of  an  Emperor 
as  "the  symbol  of  the  State." 

The  world  believes  that  had  he  so  willed  this  war  would 
not  have  occurred.  Whether  his  will  to  -war  was,  how- 
ever indefensible  -and  brutal,  a  sanely  reasoned  determina- 
tion, or  the  irresistible  impulse  of  a  mental  defective  the 
world  may  never  know.  As  I  have  said,  now  it  is  not  im- 
portant. 


CHAPTEE  II. 

What  is  the  Evidence  as  to  the  Events  Immediately 

Leading  up  to  the  War  in  Their  Relation  to  the 

Culpability   of   Germany? 

As  I  was  trying  to  formulate  my  ideas  in  reply  to 
this  question,  there  appeared  in  the  public  press  (36)  a 
most  illuminating  and  convincing  article  from  the  pen 
of  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  American  Bar,  Mr.  James  M. 
Beck.  He  propounds,  at  the  outset,  three  questions :  Was 
Austria  justified  in  declaring  war  against  Servia?  Was 
Germany  justified  in  declaring  war  against  Russia  and 
France  ?  Was  England  justified  in  declaring  war  against 
Germany  ? 

He  reviews  in  a  masterly  manner  all  .the  •official  and 
documentary  evidence  now  before  the  world,  and  assumes 
that  it  is  to  be  presented  to  a  "Supreme  Court  of  Civiliza- 
tion" for  consideration  and  judgment. 

In  reply  to  the  last  of  these  questions  he  cites  the  solemn 
treaty  of  1839,  whereby  Prussia,  France,  England,  Austria 
and  Eussia  "became  the  guarantors"  of  the  "perpetual 
neutrality"  of  Belgium,  which  treaty  was  reaffirmed  by 
Count  Bismarck,  then  Chancellor  of  the  German  Empire, 
on  July  22,  1870,  and  even  more  recently  (1913)  by  the 
German  Secretary  of  State,  who  said  in  the  Reichstag : 

"The  neutrality  of  Belgium  is  determined  by  international 
conventions,  wnd  Germany  is  resolved  to  respect  these  convert 
tions" 
To  confirm  this  solemn  assurance,  the  Minister  of  War 

added  in  the  same  debate : 

(60) 


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"Belgium  does  not  play  any  part  in  the  justification  of  the 
German  scheme  of  military  reorganization.  The  scheme  is 
justified  by  the  position  of  matters  in  the  East.  Germany  will 
not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  Belgium  neutrality  is  guaranteed 
by  international  treaties" 

A  year  later,  on  July  31,  1914,  Herr  von  Buelow,  the 
German  Minister  at  Brussels,  assured  the  Belgian  Depart- 
ment  of  State  that  he  knew  of  a  declaration  which  the 
German  Chancellor  had  made  in  1911  to  the  effect  "that 
Germany  had  no  intention  of  violating  our  (Belgium's) 
neutrality,"  and  "that  he  was  certain  that  the  sentiments 
to  which  expression  was  given  at  that  time  had  not 
changed"  (See  Belgian  "Gray  Book,"  ISFos.  11  and  12.) 

Mr.  Beck  says  it  seems  unnecessary  to  discuss  the  wanton 
disregard  of  these  solemn  obligations  and  protestations, 
when  the  present  Chancellor  of  the  German  Empire,  in  his 
speech  to  the  Eeichstag  and  to  the  world  on  August  4, 1914, 
frankly  admitted  that  the  action  of  the  German  military 
machine  in  invading  Belgium  was  a  wrong.  He  said : 

"We  are  now  in  a  state  of  necessity,  and  necessity  knows  no 
law.  Our  troops  have  occupied  Luxemburg  and  perhaps  are 
already  on  Belgian  soil.  Gentlemen,  that  is  contrary  to  the 
dictates  of  international  law.  .  .  .  The  wrong — /  speak 
openly — that  we  are  committing  we  will  endeavor  to  make  good 
as  soon  as  our  military  goal  has  been  reached.  Anybody  who 
is  threatened  as  we  are  threatened,  and  is  fighting  for  his 
highest  possessions,  can  only  have  one  thought — how  he  is  to 
hack  his  way  through." 

Mr.  Beck  might  have  added  that  by  this  same  treaty 
Belgium  had  pledged  herself  to  resist  any  violation  of  her 
neutrality,  and  that  it  was  not  only  her  right  but  her  duty 
to  bar  the  way  to  the  march  of  Germany's  legions  across  the 
land.  Mr.  Beck  continues  as  to  the  German  Chancellor's 


62  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"defence"  by  saying  that  it  is  not  even  a  plea  of  confession 
and  avoidance.  It  is  a  plea  of  "Guilty"  at  the  bar  of  the 
world.  It  has  one  merit — that  it  does  not  add  to  the  crime 
the  aggravation  of  hypocrisy.  It  virtually  rests  the  case  of 
Germany  upon  the  Gospel  of  Treitschke  and  Bernhardi, 
which  was  taught  far  more  effectively  by  Machiavelli  in  his 
treatise,  "The  Prince,"  wherein  he  glorified  the  policy  of 
Cesare  Borgia  in  trampling  the  weaker  States  of  Italy 
under  foot  by  ruthless  terrorism,  unbridled  ferocity  and 
the  basest  deception.  The  wanton  destruction  of  Belgium 
is  simply  Borgiaism  amplified  ten  thousand  fold  by  the 
mechanical  resources  of  modern  war. 

As  to  this  point,  Mr.  Beck  concludes  that  unless  our 
boasted  civilization  is  the  thinnest  veneering  of  barbarism; 
unless  the  law  of  the  world  is  in  fact  only  the  ethics  of  the 
rifle  and  the  conscience  of  the  cannon;  unless  mankind 
after  uncounted  centuries  has  made  no  real  advance  in 
political  morality  beyond  that  of  the  cave  dweller,  then  this 
answer  of  Germany  fails  to  show  a  "decent  respect  to  the 
opinions  of  mankind."  Germany's  contention  that  a  treaty 
of  peace  is  "a  scrap  of  paper,"  to  be  disregarded  at  will  when 
required  by  the  selfish  interests  of  one  contracting  party, 
is  the  negation  of  all  that  civilization  stands  for. 

"Belgium  has  been  crucified  in  the  face  of  the  world.  Its 
innocence  of  any  offense,  until  it  was  attacked,  is  too  clear  for 
argument.  Its  voluntary  immolation  to  preserve  its  solemn 
guarantee  of  neutrality  will  'plead  like  angels,  trumpet-tongued, 
against  the  deep  damnation  of  its  taking  off.'  On  that  issue 
the  Supreme  Court  could  have  no  ground  for  doubt  or  hesita- 
tion. Its  judgment  would  be  speedy  and  inexorable." 

Mr.  Beck  then  goes  on  to  discuss  the  evidence  offered  to 
the  public  in  the  British  and  German  "White  Papers"  and 
the  "Russian  Orange  Paper,"  and  asks  what  verdict  an 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  63 

impartial  and  dispassionate  court  would  render  upon  the 
issues  thus  raised  and  the  evidence  thus  submitted.     He 

eays: 

"Primarily  such  a  court  would  be  deeply  impressed,  not  only 
by  what  the  record  as  thus  made  up  discloses,  but  also  "by  the 
significant  omissions  of  documents  known  to  ~be  in  existence. 

"The  official  defense  of  England  and  Russia  does  not  appa- 
rently show  any  failure  on  the  part  of  either  to  submit  all  of 
the  documents  in  their  possession,  "but  the  German  'White 
Paper9  on  its  face  discloses  the  suppression  of  documents  of 
vital  importance,  while  Austria  has  as  yet  -failed  to  submit 
any  of  the  documentary  evidence  in  its  possession. 

"We  know  from  the  German  'White  Paper' — even  if  we 
did  not  conclude  as  a  matter  of  irresistible  inference — that 
many  important  communications  passed  in  this  crisis  between 
Germany  and  Austria,  and  it  is  probable  that  some  communica- 
tions must  also  have  passed  between  those  two  countries  and 
Italy.  Italy,  despite  its  embarrassing  position,  owes  to  the 
world  the  duty  of  a  full  disclosure.  What  such  disclosure 
would  probably  show  is  indicated  by  her  deliberate  conclusion 
that  her  allies  had  commenced  an  aggressive  war,  which  released 
her  from  any  obligation  under  the  Triple  Alliance." 

His  conclusion  as  to  this  point  is  that  until  Germany  is 
willing  to  put  in  evidence  the  most  important  documents  in 
its  possession,  it  must  not  be  surprised  that  the  world, 
remembering  Bismarck's  garbling  of  the  Ems  dispatch, 
which  precipitated  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  will  be  incred- 
ulous as  to  the  sincerity  of  Germany's  mediatory  efforts. 

He  then  reviews  the  entire  diplomatic  correspondence,  as 
published,  repeatedly  calling  attention  to  the  absence  of  im- 
portant documents  from  the  German  and  Austrian  records. 
He  finds  that  those  two  nations  were  guilty,  not  only  of  con- 
cealment or  suppression  of  portions  of  the  record,  while 
Germany  was  pretending  to  lay  its  case  unreservedly  before 
the  world,  but  that  they  were  "diplomatic  pettifoggers" 
who  took  a  "colossal  snap  judgment";  that  the  German 


64  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

Secretary  of  State  was  guilty  of  a  "plain  evasion" ;  the  Ger- 
man Imperial  Chancellor  of  a  "pitiful  and  insincere 
quibble";  of  "hypocrisy,"  of  "arrogance"  and  "unreason- 
ableness." Of  one  contention  of  the  German  Secretary  of 
State,  that  Austria  might  act  in  disregard  of  Germany's 
wish  in  a  matter  of  common  concern,  he  says : 

"This  strains  human  credulity  to  the  breaking  point.  Did 
the  German  Secretary  of  State  keep  up  a  straight  face  when 
he  uttered  this  sardonic  pleasantry?  It  may  be  the  duty  of  a 
diplomat  to  lie  on  occasion,  but  is  it  ever  necessary  to  utter 
such  a  stupid  falsehood?  The  German  Secretary  of  State  sar- 
donically added  in  the  same  conversation,  that  he  was  not  sure 
that  the  effort  for  peace  had  not  hastened  the  declaration  of 
war;  as  though  the  declaration  of  war  against  Servia  had  not 
been  planned  and  expected  from  the  first." 

Mr.  Beck  does  not  fail  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that — 

"In  reaching  its  conclusion  our  imaginary  court  would  pay 
little  attention  to  mere  professions  of  a  desire  for  peace.  .  .  ." 

"No  war  in  modern  times  has  been  begun  without  the 
aggressor  pretending  that  his  nation  wished  nothing  but  peace, 
and  invoking  Divine  aid  for  its  murderous  policy.  To  para- 
phrase the  words  of  Lady  Teazle  on  a  noted  occasion,  when  Sir 
Joseph  Surface  talked  much  6f  'honor/  it  might  be  as  well  in 
such  instances  to  leave  the  name  of  God  out  of  the  question." 

The  Judgment  of  the  Court  he  says  would  be  unhesitat- 
ingly as  follows : 

"1.  That  Germany  and  Austria  in  a  time  of  profound  peace 
secretly  concerted  together  to  impose  their  will  upon  Europe  and 
upon  Servia  in  a  matter  affecting  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe. 
Whether  in  so  doing  they  intended  to  precipitate  a  European 
war  to  determine  the  mastery  of  Europe  is  not  satisfactorily 
established,  although  their  whole  course  of  conduct  suggests 
this  as  a  possibility.  They  made  war  almost  inevitable  by 


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(a)  issuing  an  ultimatum  that  was  grossly  unreasonable  and 
disproportionate  to  any  grievance  that  Austria  had,  and  (b)  in 
giving  to  Servia,  and  Europe,  insufficient  time  to  consider  the 
rights  and  obligations  of  all  interested  nations. 

"2.  That  Germany  had  at  all  times  the  power  to  compel 
Austria  to  preserve  a  reasonable  and  conciliatory  course,  but 
at  no  time  effectively  exerted  that  influence.  On  the  contrary, 
she  certainly  abetted,  and  possibly  instigated,  Austria  in  its 
unreasonable  course. 

"3.  That  England,  France,  Italy  and  Russia  at  all  times 
sincerely  worked  for  peace,  and  for  this  purpose  not  only  over- 
looked the  original  misconduct  of  Austria,  but  made  every 
reasonable  concession  in  the  hope  of  preserving  peace. 

"4.  That  Austria,  having  mobilized  its  army,  Russia  was 
reasonably  justified  in  mobilizing  its  forces.  Such  act  of 
mobilization  was  the  right  of  any  sovereign  State,  and  as  long 
as  the  Russian  armies  did  not  cross  the  border  or  take  any 
aggressive  action  no  other  nation  had  any  just  right  to  com- 
plain, each  having  the  same  right  to  make  .similar  preparations. 

"5.  That  Germany,  in  abruptly  declaring  war  against  Russia 
for  failure  to  demobilize  when  the  other  Powers  had  offered  to 
make  any  reasonable  concession  and  peace  parleys  were  still 
in  progress,  precipitated  the  war." 

He  adds  that — 

"The  German  nation  has  been  plunged  into  this  abyss  by 
its  scheming  statesmen  and  its  self-centered  and  highly  neurotic 
Kaiser,  who  in  the  twentieth  century  sincerely  believes  that  he 
is  the  proxy  of  Almighty  God  on  earth,  and  therefore  infal- 
lible." 

Since  his  article  appeared,  another  labored  defence  of 
Germany  has  been  sent  to  America,  and,  fathered  by  Dr. 
Bernhard  Dernburg,  at  one  time  the  German  Colonial  Sec- 
retary, and  said  to  be  "now  Germany's  most  conspicuous 
advocate  in  the  United  States,"  has  been  given  to  the 
American  press.  It  still  further  illustrates  many  of  the 


66  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

points  already  made.  For  example,  it  speaks  again  of  the 
mythical  French  attack  upon  Germany  across  Belgium, 
resting  the  assertion  "upon  absolutely  unimpeachable  infor- 
mation," which  it  does  not  give.  Such  attempts  as  have 
been  made  to  sustain  this  eleventh-hour  defence  are,  so  far 
as  I  have  seen,  like  many  of  those  in  the  German  "White 
Paper,"  based  on  similarly  vague  and  unsupported  state- 
ments. The  whole  effort  in  this  last  lengthy  and  involved 
document  is  to  try  to  show  that  Eussia  is  "responsible  for 
the  war,"  that  England  "was  fully  cognizant  of  this  fact," 
and  that  the  latter^s  "claim  that  she  entered  this  war  solely 
as  the  protector  of  small  nations  is  a  fable." 

So  far  as  I  know,  no  such  claim  has  been  made  by  Eng- 
land. The  word  "solely"  is  interpolated  to  make  the  Ger- 
man case  stronger.  In  fact,  in  the  reply  by  the  English 
professors  and  men  of  science  to  the  learned  men  of  Ger- 
many responsible  for  "The  Truth  About  Germany"  (page 
251),  the  former  say  with  emphasis: 

"Great  Britain,  together  with  France,  Russia,  Prussia  and 
Austria,  had  solemnly  guaranteed  the  neutrality  of  Belgium. 
In  the  preservation  of  this  neutrality  our  deepest  sentiments 
and  our  most  vital  interests  are  alike  involved.  Its  violation 
would  not  only  shatter  the  independence  of  Belgium  itself;  it 
would  undermine  the  whole  basis  which  renders  possible  the 
neutrality  of  any  State  and  the  very  existence  of  such  States  as 
are  weaker,  much  weaker,  than  their  neighbors.  We  acted  in 
1914  just  as  we  acted  m  1870." 

But  if  the  claim  had  been  made,  it  would  have  had 
greater  inherent  probability  and  would  be  far  more 
strongly  upheld  and  substantiated  by  the  admitted  facts 
than  is  this  last  absurd  effort  to  represent  Germany  as 
resisting  "with  quiet  politeness"  a  demand,  "as  a  price  of 
British  neutrality"  to  consent  to  her  own  "humiliation" 
and  "retirement  from  the  position  of  a  Great  Power." 


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Is  it  likely  that  a  nation — or  two  nations — obviously,  as 
events  have  shown,  unprepared  for  immediate  war  would 
have  made  such  a  demand  upon  the  greatest  military 
power  the  world  has  ever  seen,  at  a  time  when,  as  events 
have  also  shown,  she  was  ready  to  the  last  apparently  petty 
detail  to  challenge,  if  need  be,  United  Europe  ?  Does  not 
every  intelligent  person  in  the  world  know  that  her  early 
successes,  on  the  offensive,  were  due  to  this  very  prepared- 
ness, which  her  opponents  could  at  the  time  but  feebly 
imitate  ?  And  since  then,  in  her  remarkable  defensive  cam- 
paign, was  not  her  temporary  safety  assured  by  these  same 
preparations,  so  complete  last  August  that  it  is  scarcely 
conceivable  that  they  could  have  been  bettered  by  or  through 
delay? 

But  even  in  this  paper  the  same  clumsy  confusion 
between  "Might"  and  "Eight,"  which  has  put  Germany  on 
the  defensive  before  the  civilized  world  is  once  more  shown. 
I  wish  I  had  space  to  quote  in  full  that  part  of  this 
"Eeview  of  Official  War-Papers."  It  speaks  of  the  "heavy 
heart"  with  which  Germany,  "following  the  law  of  self- 
preservation,"  "decided  to  violate  the  neutrality  of  Bel- 
gium." It  says  that  after  England  had  informed  the 
Belgians — as  by  solemn  contract  and  by  every  law  of  honor 
and  decency  she  was  bound  to  do — that  she  would  support 
them  in  case  "Germany  applied  pressure  to  induce  them  to 
depart  from  neutrality" — England's  own  words — "Belgian 
fanaticism  broke  loose  against  Germany." 

Can  Americans  read  with  any  patience  the  German 
expressions  of  ex  post  facto  regret — the  hypocritical  assump- 
tion that  they  are  discharging  a  sacred  duty  ? 

"By  nobody,"  says  the  Kolmsche  Zeitung  (close  to  the  Berlin 
authorities),  "is  the  fate  of  Belgium,  the  burning  down  of  every 
building,  the  destruction  of  Louvain,  so  deeply  deplored  as  by 


68  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

the  German  people  and  our  brave  troops,  who  felt  bound  to 
carry  out  to  the  bitter  end  the  chastisement  they  were  compelled 
to  inflict." 

Every  burglar  who, — caught  red-handed  and  resisted, — * 
added  murder  to  his  other  crimes,  might  with  equal  force 
"deeply  deplore"  the  "necessity"  that  "compelled"  him  to 
"inflict  chastisement." 

It  is  nauseating. 

And  through  it  all  outcrops  at  all  sorts  of  malapropos 
times  their  insufferable  self -appreciation. 

"We,  however,"  says  the  Berlin  Tageszeitung,  "do  not  need 
to  regard  the  public  opinion  of  the  world.  In  the  last  instance 
the  German  people,  united  with  the  Emperor,  are  alone  com- 
petent to  decide  the  correctness  of  Germany's  course." 

The  plea  of  "necessity"  constantly  recurs  in  the  German 
apologiae,  and  was  symbolized  and  summarized  by  Gerhart 
Hauptmann,  the  German  dramatist,  in  his  reply  to  an 
appeal  from  the  Frenchman,  Romain  Holland,  author  of 
"Jean  Christophe": 

"Our  jealous  enemies  forged  an  iron  ring  around  our  breast 
and  we  knew  our  breast  had  to  expand,  that  it  had  to  split 
asunder  this  ring,  or  else  we  had  to  cease  breathing." 

Translated  into  plain  English,  dear  reader,  this  is  as 
if  your  neighbor  Schmidt,  his  family  having  somewhat 
outgrown  the  modest  residence  in  which  he  began  house- 
keeping, had  called  God  to  witness  that  in  the  Holy  name 
of  Family  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  take  your  house  and 
that  of  his  other  neighbor  Claretie  (and  some  of  your  out- 
lying farms),  and  that  it  was  also  necessary  (under  God's 
guidance)  to  get  at  you  through  the  property  of  a  third 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  69 

neighbor,  Vandervelde,  which  property,  as  the  latter 
objected  and  resisted,  it  was  further  necessary  to  burn  and 
destroy  together  with  many  of  Vandervelde's  children  and 
his  wife. 

In  reply  to  these  various  German  attempts  to  establish 
the  righteousness  of  their  cause  by  the  plea  of  necessity 
for  more  room,  and  to  their  charges  that  Great  Britain, 
having  all  she  needs,  is  meanly  and  falsely  trying  to  shut 
out  the  Teutons,  Mr.  Powys  writes:  (37) 

"How  are  we  to  suppose  that  Anglo-Saxon  authorities  would 
answer  the  charge  of  hypocrisy  and  disingenuousness  ?  I  fancy 
they  would  claim — at  any  rate  we  may  now  be  allowed  to 
claim  for  them — that,  quite  obviously,  the  events  of  the  past 
cannot  be  changed.  By  whatever  means  the  Anglo-Saxon  got 
possession  of  so  vast  a  portion  of  the  world's  surface,  he  has 
got  possession  of  it,  and  now  holds  it  firmly.  His  apologists 
would  doubtless  add  that  not  only  does  he  hold  it  firmly,  but 
he  holds  it  wisely  and  liberally;  he  holds1  it,  in  fact,  with  as 
much  regard  for  the  liberty  and  local  traditions  of  the  peoples 
involved  as  is  compatible  with  holding  it  at  all.  But  the  fact 
that  the  events  of  the  past  have  enabled  him  to  secure  all  these 
spoils  ought  not  to  be  made  a  reason  for  the  perpetual  con- 
tinuation of  the  struggle.  He  has  secured  them.  That  is  the 
end  of  it.  If  the  Germans  had  been  equally  favored  by  oppor- 
tunity and  chance  they  would  have  secured  them.  But  as 
things  are  now,  the  past  cannot  be  changed.  And  evolution 
must  go  forward.  And  such  evolution,  forcing  life  up  to  a 
different  sort  of  struggle  upon  a  different  sort  of  plane,  must 
be  allowed  free  play  for  new  valuations  and  new  moral  stand- 
ards," 

Chesterton  has  well  summed  up  the  German  ethics. 
They  have  been  told  by  their  politicians  that  all  arrange- 
ments dissolve  before  "necessity."  That  is  the  importance 
of  the  German  Chancellor's  phrase,  excusing  and  explaining 
the  violation  of  the  neutrality  of  Belgium:  "We  are  now 


70  A  TEXT -BO  OK  OF  THE  WAR 

in  a  state  of  necessity  and  necessity  knows  no  law,"  He 
did  not  allege  some  special  excuse  in  the  case  of  Belgium, 
which  might  make  it  an  exception  to  the  rule.  He  dis- 
tinctly argued,  as  on  a  principle  applicable  to  other  cases, 
that  victory  was  a  necessity  and  honor  was  a  scrap  of  paper. 

"The  Prussians  had  made  a  new  discovery,"  says  Chesterton, 
"in  international  politics — that  it  may  often  be  convenient  to 
make  a  promise  and  yet  curiously  inconvenient  to  keep  it. 
.  .  They,  therefore,  promised  England  a  promise  on  con- 
dition that  she  broke  a  promise  and  on  the  implied  condition 
that  the  new  promise  might  be  broken  as  easily  as  the  old  one." 

This,  after  all,  well  summarizes  an  important  part  of 
the  German  "diplomacy  " 

To  return  to  Mr.  Beck's  paper,  I  beg  to  say  finally  that 
I  have  quoted  some  of  his  conclusions  without  his  argu- 
ments, because,  while  the  latter  were  incapable  of  satis- 
factory condensation,  within  my  limits,  I  wanted  to  call 
particular  attention  to  the  impression  made  on  the  highly 
trained  mind  of  one  representative  American  by  the  docu- 
ments on  which  the  German  and  German-American  special 
pleaders  largely  rest  their  case. 

The  responsiblity  for  the  war  seems  likely  to  be  a  per- 
ennial subject  of  discussion,  but  every  new  fact  disclosed 
tends  to  fix  it  more  and  more  clearly  upon  Germany. 
Eecently  (38),  the  former  Premier  of  Italy,  Giovanni 
Giolitti,  in  a  speech  to  the  Italian  Parliament,  revealed  an 
episode  of  a  year  ago  last  August  which  had  a  bearing  on 
the  present  war.  He  said  that : 

"In  August,  1913,  Austria  notified  the  Italian  Government 
by  telegram  that  she  intended  to  make  war  on  Servia;  and 
at  that  time,  in  response  to  Austria's  inquiry  about  Italy's  atti- 
tude, he,  as  Prime  Minister,  and  the  then  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  the  Marquis  di  San  Giuliano,  agreed  in  telling  Austria 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  71 

that,  as  such  a  war  would  be  a  war  of  aggression  and  not  of 
defense,  Italy  would  not  be  bound  by  the  Triple  Alliance  to 
aid  Austria,  and  wrould  therefore  remain  neutral.  'It  is  neces- 
sary to  declare  this  to  Austria  in  the  most  formal  manner/  said 
Signor  Giolitti  to  the  Foreign  Minister  at  that  time,  'hoping 
that  Germany  will  act  to  dissuade  Austria  from  a  very 
dangerous  adventure.3  This  interpretation  of  the  Triple  Alli- 
ance, Signor  Giolitti  explained  to  the  Italian  Parliament,  was 
accepted  by  Germany  and  Austria.  The  statement  is  not  only 
important  as  confirming  the  general  opinion  expressed  before  the 
war  that  Italy  would  not  aid  the  other  two  members  of  the 
Triple  Alliance  in  aggressive  warfare,  but  is  also  significant  as 
evidence  of  Austria's  and  Germany's  plans  that  will  help  to 
sustain  the  verdict  already  reached  by  neutral  peoples  concern- 
ing the  responsibility  for  this  war." 

Here  again  it  seems  fruitless  to  continue  to  adduce  evi- 
dence— it  would  be  only  cumulative.  To  Americans  who 
care  to  pursue  it  further  I  would  recommend  two  works : 
Mr.  Beck's  "The  Evidence  in  the  Case"  and  Dr.  Dillon's 
"A  Scrap  of  Paper,  the  Inner  History  of  German  Diplo- 
macy " 

In  the  former,  Mr.  Beck  has  summed  up  in  his  usual 
masterly  way  the  morals  of  the  situation  and  has  drawn 
an  illuminating  comparison  between  what  might  happen  to 
us  and  what  has  happened  to  Belgium. 

"If,  however,  there  had  been  no  Hague  Convention  and  no 
Treaty  of  1839,  and  if  Germany,  England  and  France  had  never 
entered  into  reciprocal  obligations  in  the  event  of  war  to  respect 
Belgium's  neutrality,  nevertheless  upon  the  broadest  considera- 
tions of  international  law  the  invasion  without  its  consent 
would  be  without  any  justification  whatever. 

"It  is  a  fundamental  axiom  of  international  law  that  each 
nation  is  the  sole  and  exclusive  judge  of  the  conditions  under 
which  it  will  permit  an  alien  to  cross  its  frontiers.  Its  terri- 
tory is  sacro-sanct.  No  nation  can  invade  the  territory  of 
another  without  its  consent.  To  do  so  by  compulsion  is  an  act 


72  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

of  war.  Each  nation's  land  is  its  castle  of  asylum  and  defense. 
This  fundamental  right  of  Belgium  should  not  be  confused  or 
obscured  by  balancing  the  subordinate  equities  between  France, 
Germany  and  England  with  respect  to  their  formal  treaty  obli- 
gations. 

"Belgium's  case  has  thus  been  weakened  in  the  forum  of 
public  opinion  by  too  insistent  reference  to  the  special  treaties. 
The  right  of  Belgium  and  of  its  citizens  as  individuals,  to  be 
secure  in  their  possessions  rests  upon  the  sure  foundation  of 
inalienable  right  and  is  guarded  by  the  immutable  principle  of 
moral  law,  'Thou  shalt  not  steal.'  It  was  well  said  by  Alex- 
ander Hamilton : 

"  'The  sacred  rights  of  man  are  not  to  be  searched  for  in  old 
parchments  and  musty  records;  they  are  written  as  with  a 
sunbeam  in  the  whole  volume  of  human  nature  by  the  hand  of 
Divinity  itself  and  can  never  be  erased  by  mortal  power.' 

"This  truth  can  be  illustrated  by  an  imaginary  instance.  Let 
us  suppose  that  the  armies  of  the  Kaiser  had  made  the  progress 
which  they  so  confidently  anticipated,  and  had  not  simply  cap- 
tured Paris,  but  had  also  invaded  England,  and  that,  in  an 
attempt  to  crush  the  British  Empire,  the  German  General  Staff 
planned  an  invasion  of  Canada.  Let  us  further  suppose  that 
Germany  thereupon  served  upon  the  United  States  such  an 
arrogant  demand  as  it  made  upon  Belgium,  requiring  the 
United  States  to  permit  it  to  land  an  army  in  New  York,  with 
the  accompanying  assurance  that  neither  its  territory  nor  inde- 
pendence would  be  injured,  and  that  Germany  would  gener- 
ously reimburse  it  for  any  damage. 

"Let  us  further  suppose — and  it  is  not  a  very  fanciful  sup- 
position— that  the  United  States  would  reply  to  the  German 
demand  that  under  no  circumstances  should  a  German  force  be 
landed  in  New  York  or  its  territory  be  used  as  a  base  of  hos- 
tile operations  against  Canada.  To  carry  out  the  analogy  in 
all  its  details,  let  us  then  suppose  that  the  German  fleet  should 
land  an  army  in  the  city  of  New  York,  arrest  its  Mayor,  and 
check  the  first  attempt  of  its  outraged  inhabitants  to  defend 
the  city  by  demolishing  the  Cathedral,  the  Metropolitan  Art 
Gallery,  the  City  Hall  and  other  structures,  and  shooting  down 
remorselessly  large  numbers  of  citizens,  because  a  few  non-com- 
batants had  not  accepted  the  invasion  with  due  humility. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  73 

"Although  Germany  had  not  entered  into  any  treaty  to  re- 
spect the  territory  of  the  United  States,  no  one  would  seriously 
contend  that  Germany  would  be  justified  in  such  an  invasion." 

And  in  still  another  American  book  (39),  Mr.  Oswald 
Garrison  Villard  calls  attention  to  a  point  which  has  hith- 
erto escaped  most  of  the  controversialists : 

"It  would  also  not  be  amiss  for  those  Germans  who  ponder 
over  the  failure  of  the  neutral  nations  to  sympathize  with  Ger- 
many, to  read  once  more  the  telegram  of  the  Kaiser  to  the 
King  of  England,  of  August  1,  1914,  in  which  the  Kaiser  says: 
'The  troops  on  my  frontier  are  in  the  act  of  being  stopped  by 
telegraph  and  telephone  from  crossing  into  France.9  The  sig- 
nificance of  this  to  American  readers  lies  in  the  Kaiser's 
astounding  admission  that  mobilization  against  France  meant 
immediate  invasion  of  France  before  any  declaration  of  war. 
Had  this  fact  been  publicly  known  or  really  understood  in 
Germany,  it  ought  surely  to  have  prevented  the  repeated  asser- 
tions that  France  began  the  war  by  sending  her  aviators  over 
German  territory,  by  the  entrance  of  armed  patrols,  a  sudden 
attack  in  Lorraine,  etc.  For  it  is  evident  from  the  Kaiser's 
own  words  that  long-prepared  orders  to  invade  French  soil  sent 
some  of  his  troops  onto  it  the  instant  the  first  order  to  mobilize 
appeared.  Whether  those  troops  did  any  damage  or  not,  or 
reached  French  territory  or  not,  before  war  was  declared,  is 
unimportant.  The  intent  to  rush  right  onto  French  soil  before 
peace  was  officially  ended  is  here  admitted.  It  is  thoroughly 
in  keeping  with  the  conversation  of  General  von  Moltke,  in 
May,  1913,  reported  by  the  French  ambassador  to  Berlin,  that 
'we  (the  Germans)  must  begin  war  without  waiting,  in  order 
brutally  to  crush  all  resistance.'  This  has  been  denied  in  Ger- 
many, but  it  is  in  keeping  with,  the  attitude  of  leading  mili- 
tarists, and  was,  perhaps,  one  of  the  bits  of  evidence  that  led 
Italy  to  reject  outright  Germany's  claim  that  Italy  must  come 
to  her  aid  because  she  had  been  attacked.  At  any  rate,  the 
German  propagandists  who  seek  to  conquer  hostile  American 
opinion  must  find  some  way  of  getting  around  the  Kaiser's 
despatch.  Its  revelation  of  what  German  mobilization  really 


74  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

meant  does,  however,  in  some  degree  explain  why  it  was  that 
the  Kaiser  and  his  military  associates  were  so  alarmed  by  the 
mere  fact  of  Russian  mobilization," 


CHAPTEE  III. 

What  Has  Been  the  Attitude  of  the  German  Apologists  In 
Relation  to   Belgium  Since  the  Violation  of  Neutrality? 

Professor  Weber,  of  Kiel,  said  to  be  "very  close  to  Prince 
Henry  of  Prussia  and  the  Hohenzollern  family,  writes  to 
an  American  friend :"  (40) 

"It  has  been  proved  with  certainty  that  Belgium  had  already 
entered  into  agreements  with  France  long  before  the  war  to 
permit  the  passage  of  hostile  troops  through  Belgium,  perhaps 
even  to  take  the  field  with  them  against  us. 

"By  this  means  Belgium  had  already  surrendered  her  neu- 
trality and  had  actually  taken  a  stand  with  our  enemies.  That 
we  with  one  bold  blow  should  dare  to  take  the  Belgium  fortress 
is,  therefore,  easy  to  understand.  We  have  been  far  too  lenient 
in  that  we  wished  to  give  back  to  the  Belgians  their  land  un- 
harmed after  the  fall  of  Liege. 

"Since  the  Belgians  were  so  deceived  as  not  to  accept  this 
magnanimous  offer,  they  must  bitterly  atone  for  it." 

As  usual,  nothing  worthy  of  being  called  "proof"  has 
been  adduced  in  support  of  this  statement,  and  admiration 
for  the  "magnanimity"  which  led  Germany  to  offer  to  give 
back  to  the  Belgians  their  own  land  must  be  withheld. 

Dr.  Herman  Hilprecht  says  that  the  Belgian  Government 
"stubbornly  declined  the  German  proposition" — to  allow 
the  latter  to  violate  the  treaty  of  neutrality — and  then 
attempts  to  justify  fully  and  without  reservation  the  subse- 
quent over-running  of  Belgium  and  the  pillage  and  destruc- 
tion of  Lou  vain.  (41) 

Much  precisely  similar  testimony  might  be  adduced, 

(75) 


76  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

chiefly  from  German- American  sources,  and  would  amply 
suffice  to  show  the  mistake  of  the  American  writer  who 
said:  (42) 

"The  government  of  Germany  has  announced  that  "the  occu- 
pation of  Belgium  is  now  virtually  complete';  and  the  people 
of  the  empire  are  celebrating  the  achievement  with  pride  and 
exultation.  Thus  is  closed  one  of  the  bloodiest  chapters  in  the 
war — and  one  of  the  darkest  chapters  in  the  records  of  inter- 
national dishonor. 

"No  matter  what  horrors  may  await  the  world  in  the  un- 
folding of  the  dreadful  conflict,  none  can  exceed  in  poignant 
tragedy  the  fate  of  this  devoted  people.  From  the  time  of 
Caesar  the  bravery  and  the  dauntless  independence  of  the  Bel- 
gians have  been  celebrated  by  historians  and  sung  by  poets. 
And  now  these  high  qualities  have  inspired  a  supreme  demon- 
stration of  heroism  and  sacrifice  which  makes  all  humanity  the 
debtor  of  the  martyred  nation. 

"This  is  the  one  phase  of  the  war  which  can  be  discussed 
almost  without  raising  controversy.  Upon  the  issues  of  Prus- 
sian policy,  French  hatred,  British  jealousy  and  Russian  plot- 
ting, advocates  on  either  side  wax  furiously  eloquent  and  raise 
questions  which  their  opponents  are  taxed  to  answer. 

"But  upon  the  hideous  wrong  perpetrated  upon  Belgium,  the 
most  ruthless  devotee  of  militarism,  the  most  fanatical  expo- 
nent of  imperialistic  destiny  and  the  rights  of  'culture,'  must 
take  refuge  in  silence  or  falter  out  feeble  extenuation.  The 
facts  of  history,  the  records  of  diplomacy  and  the  principles  of 
international  justice  converge  here  to  denounce  an  act  unpar- 
alleled in  its  cruelty  and  perfidy." 

Unfortunately,  since  this  was  written,  the  imperialistic 
and  "cultured"  fanatics  have  shown  that  they  have  no  idea 
of  taking  refuge  in  silence,  but  fatuously  believe  that  they 
can  impose  upon  a  thinking  and  reasoning  world  a  view 
that  it  has  already  contemptuously  and  with  practical 
unanimity  rejected. 

The  same  writer  gives  a  brief  outline  of  the  case  (from 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  W 

a  slightly  different  standpoint  from  that  of  Mr.  Beck), 
brings  it  down  to  date,  and  continues: 

"This  [the  treaty  of  1839,  etc.,  see  pp.  80-82]  was  the  record 
upon  which  Belgium  stood  when  the  troops  6f  the  Kaiser 
crossed  her  frontiers  on  August  2  last.  The  German  govern- 
ment, having  already  violated  the  territory  of  Luxemburg,  de- 
manded passage  for  its  forces  through  the  country  whose  in- 
tegrity it  was  sworn  to  honor  and  protect.  With  unblushing 
effrontery  it  called  this  demand  a  request  for  'friendly  neu- 
trality,' and  declared  that  in  case  of  opposition  Germany  would 
'consider  Belgium  as  an  enemy.' 

"There  was  here  a  double  crime.  Germany  not  only  foreswore 
her  own  covenant,  but  undertook  to  penalize  Belgium  for  ob- 
serving that  country's  solemn  obligation;  for,  of  course,  consent 
by  Belgium  to  the  free  passage  of  the  Kaiser's  forces  would 
have  been  a  repudiation  of  the  treaty  by  Belgium  and  tanta- 
mount to  an  act  of  war  against  France. 

"Apologists  for  the  invasion  have  attempted  to  set  up  two 
defences.  The  first  is  that  France  was  preparing  to  violate 
the  treaty,  and  that  Germany  simply  forestalled  her.  Fortu- 
nately, there  are  records  which  utterly  disprove  this  pretense. 
After  Germany's  ultimatum,  France  offered  the  services  of  five 
army  corps  to  Belgium  to  defend  her  neutrality.  The  answer 
was: 

"  'We  are  sincerely  grateful  to  the  French  government  for 
offering  eventual  support.  In  the  actual  circumstances,  how- 
ever, we  do  not  propose  to  appeal  to  the  guarantee  of  the 
Powers.  The  Belgian  government  will  decide  later  on  the  action 
which  they  may  think  it  necessary  to  take.' 

"Belgium  preferred  to  make  her  first  appeal  to  Germany's 
sense  of  honor,  and,  when  that  failed,  to  the  heroic  resistance 
of  a  wronged  people.  And  France  was  so  ill-prepared  for  the 
invasion  which  Germany  says  she  plotted  that  ten  days  elapsed 
before  she  had  her  forces  in  the  neutral  territory. 

"The  second  excuse  offered  in  ex  post  facto  palliation  of  the 
offense  is  that  in  the  Belgian  archives  Germany  has  found  des- 
patches showing  that  in  1906  the  British  military  attache  and 
the  Belgian  General  Staff  discussed  tentatively  plans  for  landing 
a  British  force  to  defend  Belgian  neutrality  if  it  were  attacked 


78  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

It  shows  the  desperate  nature  of  the  German  case  when  this 
incident  is  cited  to  justify  a  brutal  invasion. 

"The  arrangement  for  giving  help  to  Belgium,  if  needed,  was 
discussed  at  the  time  Germany  had  thrust  herself  to  the  verge 
of  war  with  France  over  Morocco;  and  the  proposal  of  Great 
Britain  to  defend  the  neutrality  of  Belgium,  as  she  was  bound 
to  do,  was  as  creditable  as  Germany's  violation  of  that  neu- 
trality was  dishonorable. 

"All  the  eloquence  and  sophistries  of  the  professors,  poets, 
and  psychologists  advocating  the  German  cause  cannot  remove 
the  black  stain  of  this  deed.  The  facts  are  irrefutable,  and  the 
proof  of  guilt  inexorable." 

Doctor  Bernhard  Dernburg  lias  made  perhaps  the  most 
elaborate  of  the  arguments  in  defense  of  the  violation  of 
Belgium's  neutrality.  He  begins  with  a  series  of  counter- 
charges, as  follows :  England  has  broken  treaties.  England 
has  encouraged  Portugal  to  break  "a  treaty  of  peace  and 
amity"  with  Germany.  England  has  "solicited"  the  sever- 
ing of  the  Triple  Alliance,  i.  e.,  has  tried  to  prevent  Italy 
from  fighting  by  the  side  of  her  bitter  and  hereditary  enemy, 
Austria.  Japan  broke  a  Japanese-Chinese  treaty.  Finally, 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court  said  in  1889  that,  under 
certain  circumstances,  treaty  stipulations  might,  in  the 
interest  of  the  country,  be  disregarded.  This  judgment 
was  handed  down  when  the  Chinese  were  excluded  from  the 
United  States. 

Much  has  happened  in  the  quarter  of  a  century  since 
1889,  but  there  was  not  then,  and  is  not  now,  any  just  basis 
of  comparison  between  a  modification  or  abrogation  of  a 
treaty  concerning  immigration,  and  the  brutal  rape  and 
pillage  of  a  whole  country  because  of  its  insistence  upon 
the  most  elementary  of  human  rights. 

The  fundamental  point  seems  to  be  this :  A  treaty 
between  two  or  more  countries  concerning  matters  of 
internal  administration  may  be  the  subject  of  change  under 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  79 

changed  conditions,  or  may  be  abrogated,  and  such  change 
or  abrogation  may  or  may  not  be  considered  a  casus  belli. 
Furthermore,  such  a  treaty  may  have  to  be  broken  in  time 
of  war  under  the  law  of  imperative  necessity  (now  appealed 
to  by  the  Germans),  and  the  degree  of  wrong  involved  in 
such  infraction  can  be  determined  only  by  the  circum- 
stances of  the  particular  case. 

But  a  treaty  concerning  "neutrality"  in  which  the 
interests  of  five  nations  are  involved,  and  by  which,  long 
in  advance  of  war,  each  signatory  binds  itself  not  to  acquire 
any  advantage  dependent  upon  the  non-observance  of  such 
neutrality  in  time  of  war,  is  obviously  made  with  particular 
reference  to  war  and  to  war  conditions. 

The  nation  that  disregards  such  a  treaty,  that  repudiates 
for  its  own  interests  such  an  obligation,  is,  as  Mr.  Fraley 
has  said  (p.  90),  like  the  person  who  cheats  at  cards.  It 
should  be  regarded  as  outside  the  pale  of  civilized  inter- 
course. 

Doctor  Dernburg's  further  claim  as  to  Belgium  is  that 
the  Treaty  of  1839,  which  secured  Belgium's  independence, 
was  no  longer  binding,  because  in  1870  new  treaties  were 
negotiated  between  England  and  France,  and  England  and 
the  North  German  Federation  (August  9  and  26,  1870), 
guaranteeing  Belgium's  neutrality  "for  the  duration  of  the 
war  and  for  one  year  thereafter."  Accordingly,  he  says, 
the  treaty  between  Belgium  and  the  North  German  Fed- 
eration came  to  an  end  in  May,  1872. 

This  matter  is  of  vital  importance  in  the  argument.  If 
Doctor  Dernburg's  claim  is  admitted,  it  would  afford  a 
technical  excuse  for  Germany's  treatment  of  Belgium.  I 
do  not  believe  that  in  the  opinion  of  this  country,  or  of  the 
world,  a  dozen  such  technical  excuses  would  suffice  to  win 
for  Germany  a  pardon  for  her  ruthless  invasion.  But  the 
claim,  of  course,  required  examination  on  its  merits.  Fur- 


80  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

thermore,  it  afforded  a  test  of  Doctor  Dernburg's  veracity, 
which  I  was  glad  to  apply.  It  is,,  therefore,  of  twofold 
significance. 

It  will  be  well  to  repeat  here  Doctor  Dernburg's  exact 
language:  (43) 

"When  the  war  broke  out  there  was  no  enforceable  treaty  in 
existence  to  which  Germany  was  a  party.  Originally,  in  1839, 
a  treaty  was  concluded,  providing  for  such  neutrality.  In  1866 
France  demanded  of  Prussia  the  right  to  take  possession  of 
Belgium,  and  the  written  French  offer  was  made  known  by 
Bismarck  in  July,  1870.  Then  England  demanded  and  obtained 
separate  treaties  with  France,  and  with  the  North  German  Fed- 
eration, to  the  effect  that  they  should  respect  Belgium's  neu- 
trality, and  such  treaties  were  signed  on  the  9th  and  26th  of 
August,  1870,  respectively.  According  to  them  both  countries 
guaranteed  Belgium's  neutrality  for  the  duration  of  the  war 
and  for  one  year  thereafter.  The  war  came  to  an  end  with  the 
Frankfurt  peace  in  1871,  and  the  treaty  between  Belgium  and 
the  North  German  Federation  expired  in  May,  1872." 

Before  examining  into  the  truthfulness  and  force  of  this 
presentation  of  the  case,,  it  would  be  well  to  notice  that 
Doctor  Dernburg  proceeded  in  his  attempt  to  sustain  it  by 
rewriting  for  the  German  Chancellor  his  speech  of  August 
4,  1914,  in  which  the  Chancellor  said  to  the  Eeichstag  that 
the  invasion  of  Belgium  was  "contrary  to  the  dictates  of 
international  law,"  and  was  "wrong."  The  fatal  frankness 
of  these  words  compelled  their  dexterous  apologist  to  trans- 
late them  afresh  into  modified  terms  for  the  benefit  of 
Americans.  As  softened  for  our  ears,  they  read  thus :  "The 
neutrality  of  Belgium  could  not  be  respected,  and  we  were 
sincerely  sorry  that  Belgium,  a  country  that,  in  fact,  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  question  at  issue,  and  might  wish 
to  stay  neutral,  had  to  be  overrun." 

If  Doctor  Dernburg  has  the  only  correct  report  of  this 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  81 

celebrated  and  incriminating  speech,  why  has  he  withheld 
it  until  now,  in  order  to  confide  it  tardily  to  a  waiting 
world? 

I  asked:  What  do  the  words  "perpetual  neutrality" 
mean  in  the  Treaty  of  1839  ?  When  was  that  treaty  abro- 
gated? Surely  Doctor  Dernburg  knows  that  the  negotia- 
tion of  new  treaties  does  not  necessarily  mean  the  abroga- 
tion of  existing  ones.  Bismarck  himself  recognized  this 
fact  when,  on  July  22,  1870,  he  wrote  to  the  Belgian  Min- 
ister in  Berlin: 

"In  confirmation  of  my  verbal  assurances,  I  have  the  honor 
to  give  in  writing  a  declaration  which,  in  view  of  the  treaties 
in  force,  is  quite  superfluous,  that  the  Confederation  of  the 
North  and  its  Allies  will  respect  the  neutrality  of  Belgium, 
on  the  understanding,  of  course,  that  it  is  respected  by  the 
other  belligerent." 

I  argued  that  if  no  treaty  had  been  in  existence  since 
May,  1872  (which  is  the  idea  Doctor  Dernburg  is  endeavor- 
ing to  convey),  why  did  the  German  Secretary  of  State  say 
in  the  Eeichstag  in  1913,  "The  neutrality  of  Belgium  is 
determined  by  international  conventions,  and  Germany  is 
resolved  to  respect  these  conventions"? 

Why  did  the  German  Minister  of  War  say  in  the  same 
debate:  "Germany  will  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
Belgium's  neutrality  is  guaranteed  by  international 
treaties"? 

Why,  on  July  31, 1914,  did  the  German  Minister  at  Brus- 
sels assure  "the  Belgian  Department  of  State  that  he  knew 
of  a  declaration  which  the  German  Chancellor  had  made 
in  1911  to  the  effect  "that  Germany  had  no  intention  of 
violating  our"  (Belgium's)  "neutrality"  and  "that  he  was 
certain  that  the  sentiments  to  which  expression  was  given 
at  that  time  had  not  changed"  ? 


82  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

Why  on  August  4,  1914,  did  the  German  Foreign  Secre- 
tary, after  wiring  the  Ambassador  in  London  of  a  mythical 
French  attack  across  Belgium,  go  on  to  say :  "Germany  had 
consequently  to  disregard  Belgian  neutrality"?  How 
foolish!  He  should  have  communicated  with  Dernburg, 
and  learned  that  Belgian  neutrality  died  of  inanition  in 
May,  1872.  What  were  we  to  think  of  Imperial  Chancellors 
and  Foreign  Secretaries  who  were  unfamiliar  with  so  im- 
portant a  fact,  known  all  the  while  by  an  ex-colonial  secre- 
tary? 

But  these  were  theoretical  arguments.  It  seemed  worth 
while  to  look  into  the  facts.  Doctor  Dernburg  had — incau- 
tiously, it  seems — supplied  the  dates. 

The  Nouveau  Recueil  General  de  Traites  (Vol.  XIX, 
1874,  pp.  591-593)  gives  the  text  of  the  treaties  Doctor 
Dernburg  quotes.  They  were,  as  he  says,  signed  on  August 
9,  and  ratified  on  August  26,  1870.  The  expressions  used 
in  the  treaty  between  Prussia  and  Great  Britain,  and  in 
that  between  France  and  Great  Britain  are  identical.  Both 
treaties  are  "to  maintain  the  independence  and  the  neu- 
trality of  Belgium." 

In  both  the  penultimate  article  (Article  3)  is  the  one 
quoted  by  Doctor  Dernburg.  It  reads  as  follows : 

"Art.  3.  This  treaty  shall  be  binding  on  the  High  Contract- 
ing Parties  during  the  continuance  of  the  present  war  between 
North  German  Confederation  and  France,  and  for  12  months 
after  the  ratification  of  any  treaty  of  peace  concluded  between 
those  parties- ;  and  on  the  expiration  of  that  time  the  independ- 
ence and  neutrality  of  Belgium  will,  so  far  as  the  High  Con- 
tracting Parties  are  respectively  concerned,  continue  to  rest  as 
heretofore  on  the  first  article  of  the  Quintuple  Treaty  of  the 
19th  of  April,  1839." 

I  have  italicised  the  part  deliberately  omitted  by  Doctor 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  83 

Dernburg,  a  part  not  even  separated  from  the  rest  of  the 
article  by  a  period ;  a  part  at  least  as  essential  and  as  im- 
portant to  the  full  significance  of  the  agreement  as  the  part 
he  quoted ;  but  a  part  which,  unfortunately  for  Doctor 
Dernburg,  absolutely  destroyed  and  nullified  his  contention 
that,  because  of  the  one-year  clause,  no  treaty  obligation 
in  the  case  of  Belgium  has  existed  since  1872.  He  has  left 
himself  no  room  to  deny  his  purpose  because  in  the  very 
next  sentence  he  says : 

"Why  the  new  treaties,  if  the  old  one  held  good?  The  Im- 
perial Chancellor  has  been  continuously  misrepresented  as  ad- 
mitting that  in  the  case  of  Belgium  a  treaty  obligation  was 
broken." 

We  have  already  seen  that  to  bolster  up  this  contention — 
that  the  Chancellor  had  been  "misrepresented" — he  has 
rewritten  the  Chancellor's  speech.  But  that  he  should 
venture  to  publish  that  part  of  an  article  of  a  treaty  which, 
taken  from  its  context,  seemed  to  support  his  argument, 
and  suppress  the  portion — the  last  half  of  the  same  para- 
graph— which  absolutely  invalidated  his  argument,  was, 
we  confess,  a  surprise. 

Is  it  possible  henceforth  to  place  any  reliance  upon  the 
statements  of  a  writer  who  is  capable  of  so  glaringly  mis- 
quoting an  official  document? 

He  might  as  well  have  rewritten  Article  III  of  that  treaty 
to  suit  the  purposes  of  his  argument,  just  as  he  does  seem 
to  have  rewritten  the  Chancellor's  speech,  and  Germany's 
message  to  our  State  Department  (vide  infra) . 

Doctor  Dernberg  has  provided  for  himself  a  back  'door  of 
retreat  in  reply  to  any  such  frontal  attack,  by  saying  that 
"when  the  war  broke  out,  there  was  no  enforceable  treaty 
in  existence."  This  is,  alas,  only  too  true,  but  it  is  about 
the  only  scintilla  of  truth  in  his  whole  misleading,  sophis- 


84  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  "WAR 

tical,  disingenuous  and  untrustworthy  argument.  As  its 
writer  elects  to  call  himself  a  "guest"  of  this  country — on 
whose  invitation  he  neglects  to  say — the  dictates  of  hospi- 
tality prevent  me  from  applying  to  his  statements  a  more 
fitting  and  more  concise  term. 

Dernburg  took  occasion  at  the  same  time  to  reiterate  the 
old,  old  boast  as  to  the  glories  of  German  civilization, 
which  the  events  of  the  last  few  months  should  silence  for- 
ever on  men's  tongues.  What  is  civilization  ?  Is  it,  as 
Doctor  Dernburg  seems  to  think,  a  matter  of  technical 
schools  and  electrical  apparatus?  Is  it  making  cheaper 
stockings  than  the  rest  of  the  world  ?  Assuredly,  no !  It  is 
primarily  a  matter  of  conduct.  It  is  an  understanding  of 
honor  and  of  integrity.  It  is  a  recognition  of  the  rights 
of  others.  The  Eoman  civilization  was  not  a  mere  matter  of 
good  roads,  good  bridges  and  good  aqueducts,  though  these 
things  were  built  well.  It  did  not  rest  on  conquest  or 
on  commerce.  "What  Eome  gave  and  secured,"  says  Mr. 
Chamberlain,  "was  a  life  morally  worthy  of  man."  Ger- 
many's campaign  in  Belgium — and  the  more  that  is  said 
in  defense  of  this  great  wrong,  the  blacker  does  it  appear — 
is  an  affront  to  honor,  a  deathblow  to  integrity,  a  denial  of 
just  rights.  It  is  a  triumphant  exposition  of  brute  force ;  of 
a  life  morally  worthy  of  no  man.  It  is  a  rejection  of  civili- 
zation, and  of  all  that  civilization  implies.  It  is  an  abrupt 
return  to  savage  and  elemental  conditions. 

What  wonder  that,  knowing  themselves  forsworn,  the 
Germans  should  strive  to  cast  the  guilt  of  their  perfidy  on 
Belgium's  shoulders !  What  wonder  that,  knowing  them- 
selves to  be  unprincipled  aggressors,  they  should  have  the 
hardihood  to  say  that  Belgium  plotted  against  the  peace 
of  Europe !  There  is  no  hatred  so  deep  as  that  which  we 
bear  to  the  man  we  have  wronged.  There  is  no  sight  so 
bitter  to  a  nation's  eyes  as  the  unstained  honor  of  another 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  85 

nation  it  has  dishonorably  despoiled.  As  long  as  history 
is  taught,  the  tale  of  Germany's  broken  word  and  Belgium's 
brave  resistance  will  be  told  the  world.  As  long  as  men 
stay  men,  they  will  loathe  the  oppressor  and  revere  the 
indomitable  courage  of  the  oppressed.  As  long  as  truth 
stays  truth,  the  blot  on  Germany's  escutcheon  will  remain 
uneffaced  and  uneffaceable. 

Germany's  present  attitude  toward  Belgium  has>  in  fact, 
excited  throughout  the  whole  civilized  world  feelings  of  the 
deepest  contempt  and  aversion.  The  situation  has  nowhere, 
in  the  entire  literature  of  the  war,  been  more  clearly  and 
incisively  dealt  with  than  in  the  following  editorial  from 
a  Philadelphia  paper.  (44)  I  quote  it  entire: 

"If  Prof.  Hugo  Minister  berg  had  not  laid  aside  his  avocation 
as  eulogist  of  Germany's  war  policy,  we  should  like  to  put  to 
him  a  question  in  psychology.  As  a  loyal  German  and  an  expert 
in  the  science  mentioned,  he  might  be  able  to  explain  why  Ger- 
man statesmen  and  writers  are  so  indignant  against  the  Bel- 
gians; so  rancorously  hostile  to  them;  so  contemptuous  toward 
their  heroism  and  misery. 

"German  impatience  with  France  and  aversion  toward  Russia 
we  can  understand,  and  German  loathing  for  Great  Britain  is 
an  indulgence  of  which  no  impartial  person  would  be  willing 
to  deprive  a  nation  to  which  it  gives  such  exquisite  satisfaction. 
The  author  of  the  famous  'Hymn  of  Hate'  against  England  has 
just  received  from  the  Kaiser  the  decoration  of  the  Red  Eagle 
of  the  Fourth  Class;  and  everyone  will  agree  that  it  is  a  well- 
deserved  honor,  selected  with  discrimination. 

"But  Belgium  was  not  a  powerful  rival,  like  France;  nor  a 
'menace  to  Teutonic  civilization,'  like  Russia;  nor  a  colossal 
obstruction  to  German  world  empire,  like  England.  She  was 
peaceful,  orderly,  neutral,  innocent  of  aggressive  designs,  asking 
only  to  be  let  alone.  Even  in  her  anguish  she  is  "silent  and  un- 
complaining. 

"That  the  vials  of  German  wrath  and  contumely  should  be 
poured  out  upon  Belgium  is  rather  puzzling,  until  one  recalls 
the  proverbial  teaching  that  it  is  a  human  failing  to  hate  most 


86  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

those  whom  we  have  injured.  It  may  be  the  ruins  of  Lou  vain, 
the  rich  tribute  of  war  levies  and  the  spectacle  of  a  nation 
haunted  by  famine  that  incite  German  resentment. 

"We  have  already  noted  the  persistent  effort  to  undermine 
the  world's  admiration  for  Belgium's  grave  sacrifice.  Her  con- 
sultation with  an  English  military  attache  as  to  possible  meas- 
ures of  defense,  to  be  adopted  'only  after  violation  of  our  neu- 
trality by  Germany/  has  been  denounced  as  a  betrayal,  an 
'abandoment  of  neutrality/  by  the  Belgian  government,  justly 
punished  by  invasion. 

"But  there  is  a  more  personal  phase  of  the  controversy  which 
must  appeal  to  many  observers.  This  is  the  campaign  of  de- 
traction directed  against  the  Belgians  themselves.  Recently  a 
German- American  •  publication,  the  Fatherland,  criticised  the 
American  people  for  sending  relief  ships  to  the  starving  non- 
combatants,  on  the  ground  that  this  was  assisting  the  enemies 
of  Germany. 

"The  instinct  of  chivalry  toward  a  brave  foe  seems  to  be  one 
of  the  features  of  war  that  have  disappeared  with  the  march 
of  efficiency.  The  Belgians  are  denounced  for  having  resisted 
invasion ;  their  king,  despite  his  gallantry  and  devotion,  is  ridi- 
culed as  a  deluded  conspirator  and  assailed  as  the  betrayer  of 
his  people. 

"Sixteen  years  ago,  with  three  lives  between  him  and  inheri- 
tance of  the  crown,  Albert,  of  Belgium,  lived  for  several  months 
in  the  United  States,  studying  American  principles  of  govern- 
ment and  his  vocation  of  engineering.  A  book  which  he  then 
wrote  disclosed  his  intense  admiration  for  liberal  institutions; 
and  these  convictions  he  carried  with  him  when  unexpected 
deaths  raised  him  to  the  throne.  His  simplicity  of  life,  his 
democratic  bearing  and  his  tireless  devotion  to  the  economic 
advancement  of  Belgium  made  him  a  singularly  useful  and  be- 
loved ruler. 

"During  the  war  he  has  shown  himself  such  a  king  as  even 
democracy  may  honor.  His  determination  to  sacrifice  his 
throne  rather  than  the  honor  of  his  country  evoked  world-wide 
admiration,  for  he  showed  that  he  did  not  hesitate  to  pay  his 
part  of  the  price. 

"From  the  beginning  he  has  shared  the  dangers  of  his  troops, 
and  to-day  is  as  homeless  as  the  poorest  of  his  subjects.  In  the 
lefense  of  Brussels  and  Antwerp  he  was  daily  in  the  trenches, 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  87 

and  now  is  in  active  command  of  the  remnant  of  his  army, 
which  with  supreme  courage  is  blocking  the  path  of  the  Ger- 
mans to  Dunkirk  and  Calais. 

"It  is  of  this  leader,  whose  heroism  has  been  one  of  the  most 
gallant  spectacles  of  the  war,  that  the  Hanoverscher  Anzeiger, 
an  influential  German  newspaper,  says: 

"  'King  Albert,  who  is  now  stubbornly  defending  the  last  few 
square  miles  of  his  country,  will  some  day  give  to  a  future 
Shakespeare  material  for  a  tragedy.  It  will  be  the  tragedy  of 
a  ruler  who  wanted  to  make  his  little  nation  great  and  pros- 
perous and  happy,  and  who  was  shamelessly  betrayed  by  his 
friends,  in  whose  honesty  and  fairness  he  had  trusted.' 

"This  reads  like  a  confession  of  Germany's  treaty  violation; 
but  it  appears  that  those  who  'shamelessly  betrayed'  Belgium 
were  not  the  Germans,  but  the  French  and  English.  The  paper 
continues : 

"  'Albert  trusted  perfidious  Albion;  he  steered  his  little 
vessel  into  the  wake  of  the  French  ship  of  state,  not  knowing 
that  this  proud  ship  was  being  steered  by  foreign  pilots  in  for- 
eign pay  into  a  fateful,  ruinous  undertow.' 

"And  then  follows  a  column  of  savage  sneering  in  this  vein: 

"  'Albert,  of  the  house  of  Coburg,  whose  scions  are  justly 
famed  for  their  sagacity,  did  not  develop  after  his  kin's  tradi- 
tion. He  proved  a  dilettante  on  the  throne,  for  did  he  not  light- 
heartedly  sacrifice  Belgium's  neutrality — the  most  sacred  palla- 
dium of  all  small  nations — to  vague  promises?  .  .  . 

"  'King  Albert,  unlike  his  uncle  (King  Leopold),  was  always 
eager  to  become  popular,  and  could  be  sure  to  win  the  approval 
and  good  will  of  his  people  by  conducting  his  policies  a  la  mode 
de  Paris.  More  significant  of  an  intimate  Belgian  leaning  to- 
ward the  western  countries,  however,  was  his  ambition  to  make 
his  country  a  sea  power. 

"  'Albert  always  had  been  interested  in  questions  of  technique, 
commerce  and  social  economy.  It  was  his  intention  to  continue 
the  colonial  policy  begun  by  Leopold  II  and  to  develop  it, 
though  in  a  different  direction.' 

"If  the  war  'had  taken  a  different  turn,'  says  an  astute  Ger- 
man critic,  'then  Belgium  would  have  become  a  sort  of  second 
Portugal,  a  vassal  State,  and  the  great  British  Empire  would 
have  made  her  feel  every  day  that  she  owed  her  existence  only 
to  England's  mercy.'  As  it  is,  of  course,  she  enjoys  her  present 


88  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

felicity,  and  is  conscious  that  she  owes  it,  to  Germany's  magna- 
nimity. 

"It  is,  however,  the  democracy  of  the  Belgian  king  that  moat 
exasperates  the  Teutonic  mind: 

"  'He  and  his  people  are  now  suffering  the  consequences  of  his 
ignorance.  He  made  the  fatal  mistake  of  considering  himself 
wiser  than  his  uncle  was.  He  played  the  crowned  bourgeois. 
He  catered  to  the  scholars,  artists  and  engineers.  He  always 
emphasized  his  democratic  sentiments,  which  were  very  popular 
in  Belgium,  for  that  country  is  much  behind  in  sociological 
aspect.  .  '.  .  . 

"  'In  his  ignorance,  Albert,  the  dilettante,  lent  himself  as  the 
tool  of  the  British  war-makers  and  of  the  French  revenge-criers. 
His  Coburger  cousin,  George  of  England,  has  tapped  him,  and 
Albert  may  thank  George  for  the  fate  into  which  he  stumbled 
blindly.' 

"With  such  sentiments  do  the  leaders  of  German  thought  ex- 
press their  conception  of  international  affairs  and  reveal  them- 
selves upon  questions  of  government  and  morality.  The  un- 
happy truth  is  that  Prussianized  Germany  is  utterly  incapable 
of  appreciating  the  Belgian  spirit  or  the  Belgian  king;  of 
understanding  in  the  remotest  degree  the  soul  of  this  nation  she 
has  struck  down  and  the  admiration  it  has  stirred  throughout 
the  world. 

"Despite  all  her  worship  of  militarism  and  the  cult  of  glory, 
Germany  could  not  feel  the  thrill  of  these  lines  by  an  Aus- 
tralian : 

"  'In  that  Valhalla  where  the  heroes  go, 

A  careful  sentinel  paced  to  and  fro 

Before  the  gate,  burned  black  with  battle  smoke, 

Whose  echoes  to  the  tread  of  armed  men  woke ; 

Where  up  the  fiery  stairs,  whose  steps  are  spears, 

Came  the  pale  heroes  of  the  blood-stained  years. 

"  'There  were  lean  Caesars  from  the  gory  fields, 
With  heart  that  only  to  a  sword  thrust  yields; 
And  there  were  generals  decked  in  pride  of  rank, 
Red  scabbard  swinging  from  the  weary  flank; 
And  slender  youths  who  were  the  sons  of  kings, 
And  barons  with  their  sixteen  quarterings. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  89 

"  'And  while  the  nobles  went  with  haughty  air, 
The  courteous  sentinel  questioned,  "Who  goes  there  ?" 
And  as  each  came,  full  lustily  he  cried 
His  string  of  titles  ere  he  passed  inside. 

"  'And  presently  there  was  a  little  man, 

A  silent  mover  in  the  regal  van. 

His  hand  still  grasped  his  rifle,  and  his  eyes 

Seemed  blinded  with  the  light  from  Paradise. 

His  was  a  humble  guise,  a  modest  air — 

The  sentinel  hailed  him  sharply,  "Who  goes  there  ?" 

"  'There  were  no  gauds  tacked  to  that  simple  name, 
But  every  naked  blade  leaped  out  like  flame, 
And  every  blue-blooded  warrior  bowed  his  head — 
"I  am  a  Belgian";  this  was  all  he  said.' 

"Germany  cries  out  against  her  'ring  of  enemies.5  Which  of 
them  does  she  imagine  is  the  most  dangerous?  Is  it  Russia, 
with  her  unnumbered  hordes;  France,  with  her  intrepid  armies; 
England,  with  her  mighty  fleet? 

"More  powerful  than  any  of  these  is  that  little  nation  she 
has  crushed  under  her  weight  and  now  despises  and  maligns. 
It  is  the  crime  against  Belgium  that  will  rob  a  German  triumph 
of  honor  or  fill  a  German  defeat  with  bitterness  and  humilia- 
tion. For  the  judgment  of  humanity  is  sure,  and  it  will  be  as 
stern  as  that  delivered  of  old  against  him  who  wronged  the 
helpless:  flt  were  better  for  him  that  a  millstone  were  hanged 
about  his  neck,  and  that  he  were  drowned  in  the  depth  of  the 


The  evidence  as  to  the  criminal  and  altogether  inde- 
fensible position  in  which  Germany  finds  herself  in  regard 
to  Belgium  is  overwhelming.  She  has  forfeited  the  respect 
of  the  civilized  world.  Her  "promises"  and  "pledges"  and 
"guarantees"  will,  as  long  as  the  present  ruling  class  is  in 
power,  be  regarded  with  contempt  or  derision  by  other 
nations.  So  far  as  the  Belgian  question  relates  to  America, 
however,  I  have  nowhere  seen  the  issue  better  expressed  than 


90  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

by  Mr.  Joseph  C.  Fraley,  of  Philadelphia,  who,  in  a  bro- 
chure entitled  "How  and  Why  a  War  Lord  Wages  War" 
(which  all  Americans  should  read),  says: 

"We  know  that  the  one  hope  of  stopping  wars,  is  to  supply 
a  world-wide  sanction  for  the  support  of  international  laws  and 
morals.  We  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  reasons  which  led 
certain  powers  to  engage  that  Belgian  territory  should  be  neu- 
tral in  time  of  war.  We  have  everything  to  do  with  this  par- 
ticular instance  of  treaty  breaking,  in  that  it  constitutes  a  new 
departure,  a  crime  against  all  neutrals.  Treaties  made  for 
peace  conditions  are  obviously  liable  to  be  broken  in  war,  but  a 
treaty  made  with  special  reference  to  war,  belongs  to  that  class 
of  obligations  whose  infringement  is  like  cheating  at  cards. 
The  offender  gets  no  second  chance." 

And  yet  it  takes  a  German- American  (Jastrow)  to  say 
that  the  historian  of  the  future  will,  in  analyzing  the  causes 
of  the  war,  regard  the  neutrality  of  Belgium  "as  a  very 
minor  factor,  perhaps  entirely  negligible" ! 

Doctor  Dernburg  says :  "England  takes  the  position  that, 
in  case  France  had  used  Belgium  as  a  stepping  stone, 
England  would  have  gone  to  war  against  France  for  break- 
ing the  Belgian  neutrality.  This  is  a  remarkable  proposi- 
tion." It  is  remarkable,  but  only  as  offering  an  absolute 
demonstration,  incomprehensible  to  the  German  mind,  of 
England's  unswerving  intention  to  live  up  to  her  treaty 
obligations. 

In  August,  1870,  as  we  have  seen,  on  the  instance  of 
Lord  Granville,  Germany  and  France  entered  into  an  iden- 
tical treaty  with  Great  Britain  to  the  effect  that  if  either 
belligerent  violated  Belgian  territory,  Great  Britain  would 
co-operate  with  the  others  for  the  defense  of  it.  This 
treaty  was  most  strictly  construed  during  the  Franco-Prus- 
sian war. 

It  may  seem  "remarkable"  to  Doctor  Dernburg  that  a 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  91 

nation  should  live  up  to  such  an  obligation;  but  whatever 
our  own  record  may  have  been,  however  we  may  have  sinned 
in  the  past,  we  hope  that  the  time  will  never  come  when  it 
will  seem  remarkable  to  Americans  to  keep  our  plighted 
word. 

On  July  31,  1914,  Sir  Edward  Grey  telegraphed  to  Sir 
E.  Goschen,  British  Ambassador  at  Berlin : 

"I  said  to  the  German  Ambassador  this  morning  that  if  Ger- 
many could  get  any  reasonable  proposal  put  forward  which 
made  it  clear  that  Germany  and  Austria  were  striving  to  pre- 
serve European  peace,  and  that  Russia  and  France  would  be 
unreasonable  if  they  rejected  it,  I  would  support  it  at  St.  Peters- 
burg and  Paris,  and  go  to  the  length  of  saying  that  if  Russia 
and  France  would  not  accept  it,  His  Majesty's  Government 
would  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  the  consequences;  but, 
otherwise,  I  told  the  German  Ambassador  that  if  France  be- 
came involved  we  should  be  drawn  in."  (British  White  Paper, 
No.  111.) 

The  following  day  Grey  telegraphed  Goschen : 

"I  told  the  German  Ambassador  to-day  that  the  reply  of  the 
German  Government  with  regard  to  the  neutrality  of  Belgium 
was  a  matter  of  very  great  regret,  because  the  neutrality  of 
Belgium  affected  feeling  in  this  country.  If  Germany  could  see 
her  way  to  give  the  same  assurance  as  that  which  had  been 
given  by  France,  it  would  materially  contribute  to  relieve 
anxiety  and  tension  here.  On  the  other  hand,  if  there  were  a 
violation  of  the  neutrality  of  Belgium  by  one  combatant  while 
the  other  respected  it,  it  would  be  extremely  difficult  to  restrain 
public  feeling  in  this  country."  (British  White  Paper,  No. 
123.) 

To  combat  these  official  and  categorical  statements,  what 
does  Doctor  Dernburg  offer?  "On  July  30/>  he  tells  us, 
"the  Belgian  Charge  d' Affaires  at  St.  Petersburg  wrote  to 


92  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

his  Government — and  the  authenticity  of  this  letter  cannot 
be  impeached — that  the  Eussian  war  party  got  the  upper 
hand  upon  England's  assurance  that  she  would  stand  in 
with  Prance."  Here  is  a  letter,  said  to  be  written  by  a 
Belgian  Charge  d'Affaires,  at  St.  Petersburg,,  on  July  30. 
The  letter  is  not  given.  It  does  not  appear  in  the  official 
"Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the  War/'  published  by  the 
Belgian  Government.  Its  existence  rests  on  an  unsup- 
ported statement;  but  its  authenticity  "cannot  be 
impeached." 

Are  the  American  people,  to  whom  this  appeal  is  ad- 
dressed, satisfied  to  accept  it  as  authentic  on  such  evidence  ? 
I  do  not  think  so. 

A  little  later,  after  a  repetition  of  what  is,  as  I  have 
already  said,  the  most  contemptible  and  unworthy  of  all 
the  arguments  put  forward  by  German  apologists, — the 
attempt  to  make  Belgium  herself  responsible  for  the  out- 
rages committed  against  her  (p.  124),  a  sarcastic  effort  to 
say  she  is  "not  the  'poor'  little  country"  that  is  being  pic- 
tured to  the  Americans, — Doctor  Dernburg  proceeds : 

"The  Imperial  Chancellor  said  that  he  had  proofs  that  the 
French  were  to  invade  Germany  by  way  of  Belgium.  Proof 
there  is.  French  soldiers  and  French  guns,  in  spite  of  all  the 
denials  made  by  the  French  Ambassador  at  Washington,  were 
in  Li£ge  and  Namur  before  the  30th  of  July.  Certainly  this 
proof  is  only  in  private  letters,  but  it  comes  from  absolutely 
unimpeachable  people." 

What  would  the  Germans  and  "German-Americans"  do 
without  a  few  phrases,  a  few  stock  sentences  worn  thin  in 
their  hard  service  ?  Doctor  Hilprecht  publicly  accuses  the 
Allies  of  frightful  cruelties  on  the  basis  of  "official  and 
absolutely  trustworthy  other  information."  Examination 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  93 

shows  that  the  "official  information"  is  lacking,  also  the 
"trustworthiness." 

The  German  Foreign  Secretary  telegraphs  the  German 
Ambassador  in  London  (August  4,  1914)  (No.  157,  British 
White  Paper)  :  "Please  impress  upon  Sir  Edward  Grey  that 
the  German  army  could  not  be  exposed  to  French  attack 
across  Belgium,  which  was  planned  according  to  absolutely 
unimpeachable  information/' — information,  of  course,  un- 
given. 

And  now  Doctor  Bernburg  comes  along  with  his  unim- 
peachable authenticity  and  his  "absolutely  unimpeachable 
people." 

Doctor  Dernburg  reiterated  his  "assurances"  that  "no 
matter  what  happens,  the  Monroe  Doctrine  will  not  be 
violated  by  Germany  either  in  North  America,  or  in  South 
America."  He  had,  of  course,  no  authority  to  give  such 
assurance.  He  neglected  to  repeat  his  former  published 
statement  that,  by  sending  Canadian  troops  to  the  war, 
"Canada  had  placed  herself  beyond  the  pale  of  American 
protection,"  a  statement  confirmed  by  the  inept  von  Bern- 
storff,  the  German  Ambassador  in  this  country,  who  also 
said  that  a  German  invasion  of  Canada  would  not  violate 
the  Monroe  Doctrine.  Doctor  Dernburg  did,  however, 
accuse  Canada  of  "a  wilful  breach  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine" 
by  going  to  war,  "thereby  exposing  the  American  Continent 
to  a  counter-attack  from  Europe,  and  risking  to  disarrange 
the  present  equilibrium." 

Can  casuistry  be  more  finely  spun? 

Canada,  an  integral  part  of  the  British  Empire,  sends 
troops  to  aid  in  protecting  England  from  the  gra^e  peril 
threatened  by  an  autocratic  military  Power;  and  "thereby" 
violates  a  doctrine,  the  very  essence  of  which  was  the  pro- 
tection of  this  entire  hemisphere  from  the  possibility  of  any 


94:  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

such  autocratic  military  Power  reaching  over  the  sea  to 
attack  our  all  but  defenseless  shores. 

I  must  regretfully  admit  that  to  a  certain  sort  of 
"legal"  mind  this  theory  of  the  non-violation  of  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  by  the  invasion  of  Canada  is  technically  satis- 
fying (vide  newspaper  reports  of  a  speech  of  ex-President 
Taft,  November,  1914).  But  I  would  ask  Americans  gener- 
ally to  refuse  to  accept  without  grave  and  justified  sus- 
picion any  such  assurances  as  those  given  by  von  Bernstorff 
and  Dernburg,  and  also  to  consider  seriously  whether  they 
would  desire  to  remain  neutral  for  twenty-four  hours  after 
the  bombardment  of  Quebec,  or  the  occupancy  of  Toronto 
or  Montreal.  I  think  I  know  the  answer.  As  the  New 
York  World  observed: 

"Should  German  troops  ever  invade  Canada,  the  application 
of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  to  the  specific  case  will  be  defined  in 
Washington,  not  in  Berlin" 

It  may  be  added  that  unofficial  "assurances/'  however 
"unimpeachable,"  were  officially  modified  to  "intentions" 
almost  at  once  by  our  own  State  Department,  which  an- 
nounced that  the  instructions  of  Germany  to  von  Bernstorff 
were  to  deny  that  Germany  intends  to  seek  expansion  in 
South  America.  So  the  "assurance"  becomes  an  "intent," 
and  the  "intent"  does  not  include  North  America.  Doctor 
Dernburg,  more  garrulous  than  his  Government,  endeavors 
to  soothe  our  justifiable  apprehension.  "I  am  in  the  posi- 
tion to  state,"  he  says  blandly,  "that  immediately  after  the 
outbreak  of  the  war,  by  one  of  the  first  mails  that  reached 
the  United  States,  the  German  Government,  sent  of  its  own 
free  initiative,  a  solemn  declaration  to  the  Department  of 
State  that,  whatever  happened,  she  would  fully  respect  the 
Monroe  Doctrine."  This  would  be  more  reassuring,  first, 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  95 

if  Germany  had  so  declared,,  and,  next,  if  Germany's  word 
were  at  par.  But  what  difference  does  it  make  to  us 
whether  she  swears  allegiance  to  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  or 
threatens  its  annihilation  ?  We  are  no  safer,  and  no  more 
endangered,  in  the  one  case  than  in  the  other. 

But  when  Doctor  Dernburg  permits  himself  to  say  that 
"we" — meaning  we  Germans — "have  no  ambitions  of  en- 
largement in  Europe  or  in  America";  when  he  adds  with 
touching  simplicity:  "We  do  not  believe  in  incorporating 
in  our  empire  any  parts  of  nations  that  are  not  of  our  own 
language  and  race/'  Americans  may  be  pardoned  for  asking 
how  he  reconciles  this  admirable  disinterestedness  with  the 
words  of  the  Kaiser  addressed  to  his  troops  in  East  Prussia, 
which  began,  "Thanks  to  the  valor  of  my  heroes,  France 
has  been  severely  punished.  Belgium,  which  interfered 
with  our  attack,  lias  been  added  to  the  glorious  provinces 
of  Germany." 

Dernburg  and  the  Kaiser  ought  to  keep  in  closer  touch 
if  they  want  to  influence  America.  The  Kaiser's  order 
appeared  in  our  press  on  November  13,  1914.  And  yet  on 
August  4,  1914,  the  German  Foreign  Secretary  telegraphed 
the  German  Ambassador  in  London: 

"Please  dispel  any  mistrust  that  may  subsist  on  the  part  of 
the  British  Government  with  regard  to  our  intentions.,  by  re- 
peating most  positively  formal  assurance  that  even  in  the  case 
of  armed  conflict  with  Belgium,  Germany  will,  under  no  pre- 
tense whatever,  annex  Belgian  territory.  Sincerity  of  this 
declaration  is  borne  out  by  the  fact  that  we  solemnly  pledged 
our  word  to  Holland  strictly  to  respect  her  neutrality.  It  is 
obvious  that  we  could  not  profitably  annex  Belgian  territory 
without  making  at  the  same  time  territorial  acquisitions  at 
expense  of  Holland.  (British  White  Paper,  No.  157.)" 

We  wonder  if  the  attention  of  Holland  has  been  called 


96  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

to  the  Kaiser's  order,  as  read  in  conjunction  with  the  Sec- 
retary's admirable  telegram!  When  it  is,  they  should  be 
read  together  with  the  opinion  of  the  Kaiser's  Professor  of 
Philosophy  at  Berlin,  Dr.  Lasson:  (45) 

"We  Germans  have  little  esteem  and  less  respect  and  sym- 
pathy for  the  Holland  of  the  present  day.  Holland  in  its  isola- 
tion sinks  more  and  more  into  the  dull  narrow-mindedness  that 
is  the  mark  of  small  sects.  Without  its  hold  on  Germany  it 
would  have  long  ago  disappeared.  God  be  praised  that  the 
Dutch  are  not  our  friends." 

More  recently  (January,  1915),  von  Bethmann-Hollweg 
has  felt  it  necessary  to  go  back  to  the  "scrap  of  paper" 
interview  of  August  4th,  and  re-interpret  it,  chiefly  for  the 
benefit  of  Americans.  I  have  dealt  with  this  elsewhere 
(p.  300),  but  it  seems  worth  while  to  record  the  impression 
this  effort  has  made  upon  an  American  editor:  (46) 

"More  important,  but  no  more  candid,  is  the  recent  defense 
put  forth  by  the  Imperial  Chancellor,  Doctor  von  Bethmann- 
Hollweg.  This  statesman's  courageous  admission  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  war  that  Germany  was  committing  'a  great  wrong' 
because  of  'necessity*  has  been  the  one  noble  utterance  of  his 
Government  during  the  conflict.  He  now  rejects,  however,  the 
esteem  which  his  frank  and  generous  statement  Avon  and  joins 
the  chorus  of  detraction  against  Belgium. 

"As  the  originator  of  the  'scrap  of  paper*  doctrine  regarding 
treaties,  the  Chancellor  had  attained  a  world-wide  eminence 
which  he  resents.  After  six  months'  cogitation,  he  has  de- 
cided that  he  has  been  a  victim  of  misunderstanding,  and  that 
his  historic  phrase,  far  from  being  a  cynical  repudiation  of 
international  honor,  was,  in  reality,  an  indictment  of  British 
hypocrisy  and  Belgian  perfidy.  He  repeats  the  charge  that  Bel- 
gium had  'abandoned  her  neutrality'  by  consulting  with  Britain 
as  to  resisting  the  long-threatened  violation  by  Germany,  and 
says: 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  9? 

"  'England  drew  the  sword  only  because  she  believed  her  own 
interests  demanded  it.  Just  for  Belgian  neutrality  she  would 
never  have  entered  the  war.  That  is  what  I  meant  when  I  told 
Sir  Edward  Goschen  that  among  the  reasons  which  had  impelled 
England  to  go  into  the  war,  the  Belgian  neutrality  treaty  had 
for  her  only  the  value  of  "a  scrap  of  paper." ' 

"We  do  not  know  the  nature  of  the  doctoral  degree  which  the 
Chancellor  holds,  but  in  view  of  his  defense  we  sincerely  hope  it 
is  not  a  doctorate  of  laws.  His  attempt  to  erase  the  'scrap  of 
paper'  stigma  from  the  Government  which  assassinated  Belgian 
nationality  and  stamp  it  upon  the  country  which  went  to  war 
in  defense  of  that  cause  challenges  admiration  for  its  audacity 
rather  than  its  wisdom. 

"We  by  no  means  subscribe  to  the  theory  that  Great  Britain's 
foreign  policy  is  purely  altruistic,  or  that  she  is  pouring  out 
her  blood  and  treasure  solely  for  the  sake  of  plundered  Belgium. 
Nor  is  this  fantastic  idea  suggested  by  Britain  herself.  If 
Belgian  had  lain  several  hundred  miles  distant  instead  of  across 
a  narrow  channel,  and  if  a  Germanized  Belgium  had  not  meant, 
as  Germany  boasted,  'a  knife  at  the  throat  of  England,'  the 
British  Government  and  people  would  possibly  not  have  con- 
strued their  guarantee  of  Belgium's  neutrality  to  require  resort 
to  arms. 

"But  even  in  that  case  it  would  have  been  Germany,  not  Eng- 
land, that  made  the  treaty  fa  scrap  of  paper,'  while,  as  the 
matter  stands,  Great  Britain  is  incontestably  in  the  position  of 
upholding  her  part  in  the  treaty  at  tremendous  cost,  while 
Germany  as  clearly  has  violated  her  part  for  her  own  advantage. 

"The  fundamental  inspiration  of  England,  of  course,  is  self- 
interest  or  self-preservation — the  identical  purpose  which  Ger- 
many pleads.  But  it  cannot  be  denied  that  she  is  promoting 
that  cause  by  defending  a  cruelly  wronged  nation  and  the 
sanctity  of  international  obligations,  while  Germany,  under  the 
same  plea,  has  forsworn  her  word  and  committed  a  monstrous 
assault. 

"It  is  really  astonishing  that  a  statesman  of  high  attainments 
should  offer  such  a  defense  as  that  of  Doctor  von  Bethmann- 
Hollweg.  If  it  was  an  act  of  necessity,  even  of  virtue,  for  Ger- 
many to  violate  the  treaty  for  self-protection,  it  is  quite  out  of 
the  question  for  impartial  observers  to  find  guilty  the  country 
which  observed  and  defended  the  treaty  for  the  same  reason. 
7 


98  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"'England  ought  really  to  cease  harping  on  this  theme  of 
Belgian  neutrality/  says  the  exasperated  Chancellor.  He  does 
not  yet  realize  that  that  chord  vibrates  to  the  finger  of  hu- 
manity and  that  the  note  of  its  condemnation  will  resound 
through  all  time." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

As  Time  Went  on,  Has  There  Been  Reason  to  Modify  or  to 
Mitigate  the  Almost  Universal  Condemnation  of  Ger- 
many's   Treatment    of    Belgium,     Felt    and 
Expressed  at  the  Outset  in 
This  Country? 

I  purposely  abstain  from  making  in  this  connection  any 
definite  accusation  as  to  the  individual  "atrocities"  ascribed 
to  the  Germans  by  the  French  and  Belgians,  because  the 
evidence,  even  when  it  has  been  taken  under  oath,  with 
names,  places,  dates,  and  details  (as  is  the  case  with  that 
offered  to  the  world  by  the  Belgian  Commission),  is  met 
by  denials,  also  under  oath,  and  by  virulent  countercharges. 
It  is  also  met,  most  ineffectively  and  almost  absurdly,  by 
the  repeated  publication  of  statements  by  some  American 
newspaper  correspondents  who,  I  am  sure  with  entire 
truthfulness,  declare  that,  having  been  in  the  countries  of 
the  combatants,  they  saw  no  cases  of  such  atrocities  and 
could  obtain  no  convincing  evidence  that  they  ever  took 
place.  This  is  interesting  but  unimportant.  If  the  fact 
that  certain  persons,  even  those  living  continuously  at 
or  near  the  scene  of  a  crime,  and  not  merely  visiting  it 
with  the  escort  and  protection  of  the  suspected  criminals, 
had  not  seen  the  crime  committed,  and  could  get  no 
reliable  evidence  that  it  had  been  committed,  were  allowed 
to  weigh  in  Courts  of  Justice  against  the  testimony  of  eye- 
witnesses who  had  seen  it,  there  would  be  a  general  and 
world-wide  jail  delivery. 

Six  reputable  witnesses  of  a  murder,  a  rape,  a  burglary, 
or  an  arson  (and  the  Belgium  case  has  the  ear-marks  of  all 

(99) 


100  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

four)  should  outweigh  six  million  who  would  swear  that — 
not  having  been  there — they  did  not  see  it,  and  that  they 
were  later  unable  to  obtain  evidence  satisfactory  to  them- 
selves that  the  murder,  rape,  burglary,  or  arson,  had 
occurred.  The  entire  question  is  one  of  the  credibility  of 
certain  witnesses  and  of  the  weight  to  be  given  to  collateral 
circumstances  that  have  a  bearing  upon  the  case.  Taking 
the  latter  first,  should  not  the  following  extracts  from  Ger- 
man official  orders  be  regarded  as  having  a  direct  relation 
to  the  matter? 

EXTRACT  FROM  A  PROCLAMATION  TO  THE  MUNICIPAL 
AUTHORITIES  OF  THE  CITY  OF  LIEGE. 

"August  22d,  1914. 

"The  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Andenne,  after  having  de- 
clared their  peaceful  intentions,  have  made  a  surprise  attack  on 
our  troops. 

"It  is  with  my  consent  that  the  Commander-in-Chief  has  or- 
dered the  whole  town  to  be  burned  and  that  about  one  hundred 
people  have  been  shot. 

"I  bring  this  fact  to  the  knowledge  of  the  city  of  Liege,  so 
that  citizens  of  Liege  may  realize  the  fate  with  which  they  are 
menaced  if  they  adopt  a  similar  attitude. 

"The  General  Commanding  in  Chief. 

"(Signed)     VON  BULOW." 


NOTICE  POSTED  AT  NAMUR,  AUGUST  THE  25TH,   1914. 

(1)  "French  and  Belgian  soldiers  must  be  surrendered  as 
prisoners  of  war  at  the  prison  before  4  o'clock.     Citizens  who 
do  not  obey  will  be  condemned  to  enforced  labor  for  life  in 
Germany. 

"A  rigorous  inspection  of  houses  will  begin  at  4  o'clock. 
Every  soldier  found  will  be  immediately  shot. 

(2)  "Arms,   powder,   dynamite,   must    be   surrendered   at   4 
o'clock.     Penalty:    death  by  shooting. 

"The  citizens  who  know  where  a  store  of  arms  is  located  must 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAP  .101 

inform  the  Burgomaster,  under  penalty  of  enforced  labor  for 
life. 

(3)  "Each  street  will  be  occupied  by  a  German  guard,  who 
will  take  ten  hostages  in  each  street,  whom  they  will  keep  in 
custody. 

"If  any  outrage  is  committed  in  the  street,  the  ten  hostages 
will  be  shot. 

"The  Commandant  of  the  City. 

"(Signed)     VON  BULOW." 
Namur,  25th  August,  1914. 

( Imprimerie  Chantraine. ) 


LETTER  ADDRESSED  ON  AUGUST  27TH,  1914,  BY  LIEU- 
TENANT-GENERAL VON  NIEBER  TO  THE 
BURGOMASTR  OF  WAVRE. 

"On  August  22d,  1914,  the  General  Commanding  the  2d  Army, 
Herr  von  Bulow,  imposed  upon  the  city  of  Wavre  a  war  levy  of 
three  million  francs,  to  be  paid  before  September  1st,  as  expia- 
tion for  its  unqualified  behavior  (contrary  to  the  Law  of 
Nations  and  the  usages  of  war)  in  making  a  surprise!  attack 
on  the  German  troops 

"I  draw  the  attention  of  the  City  to  the  fact  that  in  no  case 
can  it  count  on  further  delay,  as  the  civil  population  of  the 
City  has  put  itself  outside  the  Law  of  Nations  by  firing  on  the 
German  soldiers. 

"The  City  of  Wavre  will  be  burned  and  destroyed  if  the  levy 
is  not  paid  in  due  time,  without  regard  for  anyone;  the  innocent 
will  suffer  with  the  guilty." 


PROCLAMATION  POSTED  AT  GRIVEGNEE,  SEPTEMBER 
8TH,  1914. 

"(1)  Before  the  6th  of  September,  1914,  at  4  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  all  arms',  munitions,  explosives  and  fireworks  which 
are  still  in  the  hands  of  the  citizens,  must  be  surrendered  at 
the  Chateau  des  Bruyeres.  Those  who  do  not  obey  will  render 
themselves  liable  to  the  death  penalty.  They  will  be  shot  on  the 
spot,  or  given  military  execution,  unless  they  can  prove  their 
innocence. 


108  "A  -TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"(5)  In  order  to  be  sure  that  this  permission  is  not  abused, 
the  Burgomasters  of  Beyne-Heusay  and  of  Grivegnee  shall  im- 
mediately draw  up  a  list  of  persons  who  shall  be  held  as 
hostages,*  at  the  fort  of  Fleron,  in  24-hour  shifts ;  on  September 
6th,  for  the  first  time,  from  6  o'clock  in  the  evening  until  mid- 
day, September  7th. 

*"The  life  of  these  hostages  will  depend  upon  the  population 
of  the  aforesaid  communes  remaining  pacific  under  all  circum- 
stances. 

11  (6)  I  will  designate  from  the  lists  submitted  to  me  the  per- 
sons who  will  be  detained  as  hostages  from  noon  of  one  day  to 
noon  of  the  next  day.  If  the  substitute  does  not  arrive  in  time, 
the  hostage  will  remain  another  24  hours.  After  this  second 
period  of  24  hours,  the  hostage  incurs  the  penalty  of  death  if 
the  substitution  is  not  made 

"(10)  Anyone  knowing  of  the  location  of  a  store  of  more 
than  one  hundred  litres  of  petroleum,  benzine,  benzol,  or  other 
similar  liquids  in  the  aforesaid  communes,  and  who  does  not 
report  same  to  the  military  commander  on  the  spot,  incurs  the 
penalty  of  death,  provided  there  is  no  doubt  about  the  quantity 
and  the  location  of  the  store.  Quantities  of  100  litres  are  alone 
referred  to 

"(11)  Anyone  who  does  not  instantly  obey  the  command  of 
'hands  up,'  becomes  guilty  (sic)  of  the  death-penalty.  .  .  . 


NOTICE  POSTED  AT  BRUSSELS,  OCTOBER  5TH,  1914,  AND 

PRESUMABLY  IN  MOST  OF  THE  COMMUNES 

IN  THE  COUNTRY. 

"On  the  evening  of  September  25th,  the  railway  and  tele- 
graph lines  were  destroyed  on  the  Lovenjoul-Vertryck  line. 

"Consequently,  the  two  above-mentioned  places,  on  the  morn- 
ing of  September  30th,  had  to  give  an  account  and  to  furnish 
hostages. 

"In  the  future,  the  communities  in  the  vicinity  of  a  place 
where  such  things  happen  (no  matter  whether  or  not  they  are 
accomplices)  will  be  punished  without  mercy. 

"To  this  end,  hostages  have  been  taken  from  all  places  in 
the  vicinity  of  railroad  lines  menaced  by  such  attacks,  and  at 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  103 

the  first  attempt  to  destroy  the  railroad  tracks  or  the  telegraph 
or  telephone  wires,  they  will  be  immediately  shot. 

"Furthermore,  all  troops  in  charge  of  the  protection  of  the 
railroad  lines  have  received  orders  to  shoot  any  person  ap- 
proaching, t  in  a  suspicious  manner,  the  railroad  tracks  or  the 
telegraph  or  telephone  lines. 

"The  Governor  General  of  Belgium, 
"(Signed)     BARON  VON  DEB  GOLTZ, 

"Field  Marshal." 


NOTICE  POSTED  AT  BRUSSELS,  NOVEMBER  1ST,  1914. 

"A  legally  constituted  Court  Martial  has  pronounced,  the 
28th  of  October,  1914,  the  following  condemnations: 

"  ( 1 )  Upon  Policeman  De  Ryckere  for  attacking,  in  the  exer- 
cise of  his  legal  functions,  an  agent  vested  with  German  au- 
thority, for  wilfully  inflicting  bodily  injury  on  two  occasions, 
in  concert  with  other  persons,  for  facilitating  the  escape  of  a 
prisoner,  on  one  occasion,  and  for  attacking  a  German  soldier — 
Five  years  imprisonment. 

"The  city  of  Brussels,  excluding  suburbs,  has  been  punished, 
for  the  crime  committed  by  its  policeman,  De  Ryckere,  against 
a  German  soldier  by  an  additional  fine  of  five  million  francs. 

"The  Governor  of  Brussels, 
"(Signed)     BABON  VON  LUETWITZ, 

"General." 


EXTRACT  FROM  THE  SIXTH  REPORT  OF  THE  BELGIAN 
COMMISSION  OF  INQUIRY. 

"After  such  proclamations.,  who  will  be  surprised  at  the  mur- 
ders, burnings,  pillage  and  destruction  committed  by  the  Ger- 
man army  wherever  they  have  met  with  resistance? 

"If  a  German  corps,  or  patrolling  party,  is  received  at  the 
entrance  to  a  village  by  a  volley  from  soldiers  of  the  regular 
troops  who  are  afterwards  forced  to  retire,  the  whole  population 
is  held  responsible.  The  civilians  are  accused  of  having  fired  or 
having  co-operated  in  the  defense,  and  without  inquiry,  the 


104  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

place  is  given  over  to  pillage  and  flames,  a  part  of  the  inhabi- 
tants are  massacred 

"The  odious  acts  which  have  been  committed  in  all  parts  of 
the  country  have  a  general  character,  throwing  the  responsi- 
bility upon  the  whole  German  army.  It  is  simply  the  appli- 
cation of  a  preconceived  system,  the  carrying  out  of  instruc- 
tions, which  have  made  of  the  enemy's  troops  in  Belgium  'a 
horde  of  barbarians  and  a  band  of  incendiaries.' " 

A  very  extraordinary  instance  of  German  prevision  has 
been  brought  to  light  by  Prof.  Eaymond  Weeks.  (47)  It  is 
to  be  read  in  conjunction  with  the  military,  orders  quoted 
above  and  with  the  American  and  German  evidence  as  to 
atrocities  given  below.  It  constitutes,  perhaps,  the  most 
unique  of  all  possible  additions  to  the  "Complete  Letter 
Writer."  Professor  Weeks  says: 

"The  German  military  authorities  are  said  to  have  foreseen 
everything.  They  even  foresaw  the  need  of  denying  atrocities, 
as  is  evinced  by  a  manual  called  The  Military  Interpreter, 
second  edition,  Berlin,  1906;  publisher,  A.  Bath.  The  author 
is  Captain  von  Scharfenort,  an  official  of  the  Military  Depart- 
ment. This  manual,  among  many  useful  formulae,  offers  a 
model  letter  of  protest  against  an  accusation  of  atrocities. 
This  suggestive  document  is  entitled,  'Letter  to  the  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  Hostile  Army/  and  commences  thus : 

"  'In  a  circular  letter  of  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  you 
have  reproached  the  German  troops  with  numerous  violations 
of  international  custom. 

"  'According  to  you,  German  troops  have  been  guilty  of  acts 
of  hostility  against  ambulances;  they  are  said  to  have  made 
prisoner,  M.  A.,  in  the  midst  of  an  ambulance  corps  organized 
by  him;  they  are  accused  of  having  made  use  of  explosive 
bullets,  of  having  compelled  peasants  in  the  vicinity  of  S.  to 
dig  trenches  under  fire;  they  are  accused  of  having  attempted 
to  transport  provision  and  munition  trains  and  caissons  by 
protecting  them  with  the  conventional  sign  of  Geneva;  finally, 
a  physician  who  was  caring  for  a  wounded  Prussian  soldier  is 
said  to  have  been  killed  by  him. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  105 

"'Although  I  was  quite  sure,  a  priori,  that  these  accusa- 
tions were  false,  I  was  unwilling  to  rest  content  with  simply 
assuring  you  that  such  things  were  impossible,  and  I  made  an 
inquiry  to  discover  whether  something  might  have  happened 
which  could  have  been  transformed,  by  reporters  unworthy  of 
credence  or  filled  with  malevolence,  into  the  monstrosities 
which  were  laid  at  our  door.' 

"After  stating  that  the  inquiry  offered  great  difficulties 
because  of  the  vagueness  of  the  accusations,  he  continues : 

"  'It  is  exact  that  M.  A.  was  arrested,  and  that  he  had  been 
occupied  in  caring  for  the  wounded,  but  his  arrest  did  not 
take  place  in  the  midst  of  an  ambulance  corps.  It  was  moti- 
vated by  the  suspicion  that  the  above-mentioned  person  was  in 
communication  with  the  garrison  of  S.,  and  his  arrest,  as  also 
his  imprisonment  which  followed,  took  place  with  all  of  the 
consideration  due  to  his  situation  and  to  his  honorability.  As 
to  the  duration  of  his  detention,  the  military  investigation 
alone  can  decide.  As  for  all  the  other  affirmations,  I  must 
declare  them  to  be  fabrications.  Out  of  regard  for  the  Powers 
which  adhered  to  the  Convention  of  Geneva  and  the  declaration 
of  St.  Petersburg  of  November  29  (11  December),  1868,  I  add 
here  and  I  affirm  that  the  said-mentioned  convention  has  been 
observed  by  the  German  troops  in  the  most  scrupulous  manner,' 
etc. 

"  'Yes,'  Professor  Weeks  adds,  'the  German  military  authori- 
ties foresaw  everything — except  that  some  of  their  soldiers' 
diaries  would  be  captured.' " 

The  strongest  a  priori  argument  against  belief  in  Ger- 
nan  atrocities  rests  upon  the  inherent  improbability  that 
men  such  as  the  Germans  we  have  all  known,  and  most  of 
whom  we  have  liked,  could  be  so  transformed  by  war  as  to 
be  guilty  of  even  a  tithe  of  the  hideous  and  bestial  out- 
rages said  to  have  been  perpetrated  by  them. 

But  are  they  the  Germans  we  have  known  ?  Is  it  safe  to 
argue  from  Philip  sober  to  Philip  drunk  ?  It  is  said  that 
they  were  under  iron  discipline.  Perhaps  they  were;  but 
if  that  discipline  openly  and  brazenly  included  a  policy  of 


106  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

terrorism  of  the  civilian  populations  of  conquered  terri- 
tory, it  is  itself  an  argument  for  the  plaintiffs.  A  system 
that  could  in  time  of  peace  condone  the  Zabern  infamy,  as 
between  individuals,  could  conceivably  in  time  of  war 
condone  the  asserted  Belgian  atrocities.,  as  between  nations. 
Military  mouthpieces  say  (unrebuked,  so  far  as  I  know), 
that  "any  act"  committed  by  their  troops  for  the  purpose  of 
"discouraging,  defeating  and  destroying  the  enemy  is  a 
brave  act."  General  von  Disfurth  is  said  to  have  said: 
(p.  42)  "I  hope  that  in  this  war  we  have  merited  the  title 
barbarians." 

As  to  the  asserted  physical  impossibility  that  some  of 
the  alleged  occurrences  could  have  taken  place,  I  may 
speak  with  more  confidence,  from  expert  knowledge.  The 
accomplished  lady  who  writes  for  an  American  paper  under 
the  nom-de-plume  of  "Sallie  Wistar"  asked  my  opinion  of 
the  statement  of  a  correspondent,  who  said :  (48) 

"It  is  unworthy  of  our  people  to  accept  such  tales  with- 
out proof.  A  moment's  thought  ought  to  convince  any 
intelligent  mind  that  a  child,  whose  hands  had  been  hacked 
off  by  the  sword,  could  not  have  survived  such  an  experi- 
ence, unless,  indeed,  the  most  skilled  surgical  treatment 
were  immediately  administered  on  the  spot.  ...  It 
would  require  overwhelming  proof  to  convince  reasonable 
minds  that  any  hapless,  innocent  Belgian  child  ever  had 
its  hands  lopped  off  by  the  kindly  Germans." 

I  replied :  "Your  correspondent  is  mistaken  in  supposing 
that  no  child  whose  hands  had  been  cut  off  could  survive 
hemorrhage,  fever,  and  shock  unless  skilled  surgical  aid 
be  at  once  administered.  The  records  of  every  accident  and 
emergency  hospital  in  the  world  would  contradict  this. 

"The  proportion  of  children  who  would  die  after  such 
mutilation  would  vary  with  the  amount  of  hemorrhage,  the 
degree  of  fever,  or  the  extent  of  shock. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  10? 

"But  accepting  the  current  descriptions  as  approximately 
correct,  hemorrhage  might  be  trifling,  as  it  is  apt  to  be  after 
blunt  wounds  and  crushes;  fever  would  be  absent  if  the 
wound  remained,  as  it  might  remain,  uninfected,  and  shock 
would  be  present  to  greater  or  less  degree  in  accord  with 
the  elements  of  bleeding,  pain  and  fright.  Shock  might  be 
relatively  trifling  and  need  not  in  any  case  be  necessarily 
fatal. 

"In  some  of  the  reported  cases  it  seemed  evident  that  the 
removal  of  the  hand  or  hands  had  been  a  sequel  to  the 
wounds  received,  and,  as  might  be  expected,  not  an  im- 
mediate and  instantaneous  severance  by  a  sweep  of  a  sabre. 
The  latter  would  require  a  degree  of  expertness  scarcely  to 
be  expected  even  from  one  of  the  War  Lord's  'heroes/ 

"To  sum  up,  nothing  that  I  have  seen  as  to  the  alleged 
German  atrocities  is  surgically  impossible  of  belief." 

Perhaps  the  most  astounding  position  taken  by  German- 
Americans  as  to  Germany's  behavior  toward  Belgium  is  to 
be  found  in  an  article  called  "War  Hypocrisy  Unveiled" 
in  which  the  author  (Albert  B.  Henschel),  a  member  of 
the  New  York  Bar  (49),  in  reply  to  the  suggestion  that 
Germany  might  invade  this  country  to  attack  Canada,  says : 

"In  place  of  this  most  unfair  analogy  let  us  suppose  that 
your  house  was  afire,  with  the  only  means  of  escape  over  your 
neighbor's  roof.  Would  you  dally  over  the  question  of  the  'neu- 
trality' of  your  neighbor's  house — considering  that  his  home  is 
his  castle? — or  would  you  simply  go  over  his  roof  and  save 
yourself  and  your  family? 

"But  what  did  the  Germans  do?  Did  they  rush  helter 
skelter  into  Belgium  without  so  much  as  saying,  'By  your 
leave?' 

"No.  To  the  honor  and  dignity  of  human  nature  be  it  said 
that  in  that  time  of  imminent  peril  they  did  what  no  other 
nation  has  ever  done,  they  delayed  sufficiently — when  every  mo- 
ment was  precious — to  ask  permission  of  Belgium  and  to  give 


108  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

assurance  that  her  integrity  and  independence  would  be  pro- 
tected and  reparation  made  for  all  losses.  The  future  historian 
will  refer  to  this  act  of  Germany  as  a  manifestation  of  a  most 
sublime  sense  of  justice,  original  and  unique  in  the  annals  of  the 
world. 

"When  this  offer  was  refused  Germany  did  what  any  other 
European  nation  would  have  done  in  the  first  place.  She  went 
into  Belgium  to  save  herself  from  destruction. 

"There  is  no  doubt  that  Belgium  had  the  right  to  refuse 
permission  and  to  resist  invasion.  But,  when  she  made  her 
choice,  which  involved  war  with  Germany,  she  cannot  complain 
of  the  war  thus  invited/' 

There  is  one  point  as  to  which  many  Americans  will 
agree  with  him.  Germany's  act  considered  as  "a  manifesta- 
tion of  a  most  sublime  sense  of  justice"  is,  beyond  all 
cavil,  "original  and  unique  in  the  annals  of  the  world." 

I  wish  every  American  who  desires  to  reach  a  just  con- 
clusion as  to  the  question  of  "atrocities"  could  find  time 
and  opportunity  to  read  "German  Atrocities  in  France," 
a  translation  of  the  official  report  of  the  French  Commis- 
sion the  reports  of  the  Belgian  Commission  of  Inquiry 
(quoted  above) ;  "The  Innocence  of  Belgium,  established 
by  the  Military  Documents  Published  by  Germany";  and 
"Lies  Crimes  Allemands,  d'apres  les  Temoignages  Alle- 
mands,"  by  Joseph  Bedier,  Professor  at  the  College  de 
France.  He  would  then  be  in  possession  of  the  affirmative 
side  of  the  question  and  could  judge  for  himself  what 
weight  to  give  to  the  denials. 

There  is  some  evidence,  however,  which  a  book  prepared 
by  an  American,  for  Americans,  should  contain.  It  has 
been  summarized  by  Dr.  Morton  Prince  in  articles  that 
appeared  in  February  (50),  and  have  been  reprinted  with 
the  caption  "The  American  Versus  the  German  Viewpoint 
of  the  War."  Dr.  Prince  reviews  a  series  of  articles  by 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  109 

Dr.  von  Maeh,  in  which,  under  the  heading,  "The  German 
Viewpoint,"  he  gives  pictures  of  German  army  life  in 
order  to  show  that  a  prophecy  of  the  elder  Moltke's  has 
been  fulfilled  and  that  because  universal  service  has 
brought  "the  educated  classes"  into  the  army  "a  more 
humane  way  of  waging  war"  has  resulted.  Dr.  von  Mach 
quotes  from  an  account  written  by  Professor  von  Hart- 
mann,  now  serving  as  a  lieutenant  in  the  German  army. 
He  calls  his  first  "picture,"  a  "French  Lesson  at  the  Front. 
Place— A  Stubble  Field  in  Belgium.  Time— Autumn, 
1914."  He  depicts  groups  of  the  "splendid  fellows  from 
the  country"  who  have  lighted  their  pipes  after  breakfast 
and  are  "singing  the  beautiful  home  and  soldier  songs," 
which  "often  soften,  for  the  time  being,  even  the  hardest 
hearts  of  warriors."  Then  they  have  a  lesson  in  French! 
Another  "picture"  shows  them  marching  to  the  front,  sing- 
ing Koerner's  "Prayer  During  Battle,"  beginning  "Father 
I  Call  to  Thee."  Dr.  von  Mach  adds:  "Whatever  selfish 
train  of  thought  the  individual  soldier  or  officer  had  been 
following  fell  into  insignificance  before  the  grand  concep- 
tion of  God  and  man."  ' 

Dr.  Prince  then  presents  his  pictures,  from  the  Ameri- 
can viewpoint.    He  says: 

"Dr.  von  Mach  has  given  his  pictures  as  drawn  by  an  eye 
witness,  Professor  Hartmann,  a  German.  Let  me,  too,  draw 
some  pictures,  and  let  me,  too,  take  my  pictures  from  an  eye 
witness  in  Belgium;  but  he  shall  be  a  neutral  witness,  an 
American,  Mr.  E.  Alexander  Powell,  who  had  unusual  oppor- 
tunities to  observe  what  he  describes  in  his  book,  recently  pub- 
lished, 'Fighting  in  Flanders.'  He  was  one  of  the  few  corre- 
spondents on  the  firing  line.  .  .  . 

"I  cite  this  account  because  I  wish  to  disregard  all  ex  parte 
testimony.  All  the  Belgian  accounts  are  those  of  interested 
witnesses.  We  shall  see  the  war  waged  in  Belgium  not  from 


110  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

the  Belgian  or  the  German  viewpoint,  but  from  the  American 
viewpoint." 

He  calls  his  picture  "A  German  Lesson  at  the  Front." 
Place — Aerschot.  Time — August,  1914."  He  says  that  to 
understand  the  picture  we  must  remember  that  orders  had 
been  deliberately  given  to  bum  and  pillage  Aerschot  by  the 
German  commander  after  the  German  troops  had  entered 
the  town.  This,  the  commander  himself  told  Mr.  Powell, 
was  in  retaliation  for  the  shooting  of  the  chief  of  staff  by 
a  boy,  15  years  of  age,  the  son  of  the  burgomaster.  "What 
followed,"  Mr.  Powell  was  given  to  understand — the  exe- 
cution of  the  burgomaster,  his  son  and  several  score  of  the 
leading  townsmen,  the  giving  over  of  the  women  to  a  lust- 
mad  soldiery,  the  sacking  of  the  houses,  and  the  final  burn- 
ing of  the  town — "was  the  punishment  which  would  al- 
ways be  meted  out  to  towns  whose  inhabitants  attacked 
German  soldiers." 

This  is  what  Mr.  Powell  saw : 

"In  many  parts  of  the  world  I  have  seen  many  terrible  and 
revolting  things,  but  nothing  so  ghastly,  so  horrifying  as  Aer» 
schot.  Quite  two-thirds  of  the  houses  had  been  burned,  and 
showed  unmistakable  signs  of  having  been  sacked  by  a  mad- 
dened soldiery  before  they  were  burned. 

"Everywhere  were  the  ghastly  evidences.  Doors  had  been 
smashed  in  with  rifle-butts  and  boot  heels;  windows  had  been 
broken ;  pictures  had  been  torn  from  the  walls ;  mattresses  had 
been  ripped  open  with  bayonets  in  search  of  valuables ;  drawers 
had  been  emptied  upon  the  floors ;  the  outer  walls  of  the  houses 
were  spattered  with  blood  and  pock-marked  with  bullets;  the 
sidewalks  were  slippery  with  broken  bottles;  the  streets  were 
strewn  with  women's  clothing. 

"It  needed  no  one  to  tell  us  the  details  of  that  orgy  of  blood 
and  lust.  The  story  was  so  plainly  written  that  anyone  could 
read  it."  .  .  . 

"Piecing  together  the  stories  told  by  those  who  did  survive 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  111 

that  night  of  horror,  we  know  that  scores  of  townspeople  were 
shot  down  in  cold  blood,  and  that,  when  the  firing  squads  could 
not  do  the  work  of  slaughter  fast  enough,  the  victims  were 
lined  up  and  a  machine  gun  was  turned  upon  them. 

"We  know  that  young  girls  were  dragged  fiom  their  homes 
and  stripped  naked  and  violated  by  soldiers — many  soldiers — 
in  the  public  square  in  the  presence  of  officers. 

"We  know  that  both  men  and  women  were  unspeakably 
mutilated,  that  children  were  bayoneted,  that  dwellings  were 
ransacked  and  looted,  and  that  finally,  as  though  to  destroy 
the  evidences  of  their  horrid  work,  soldiers  went  from  house 
to  house  with  torches,  methodically  setting  fire  to  them." 

It  may  be  observed  here  that  there  seems  good  reason  to 
believe  that,  in  many  instances,  the  houses  which  were 
spared  by  the  German  soldiery,  in  accordance  with  direc- 
tions chalked  upon  their  doors  or  shutters — "giite  Leute- 
Mcht  zu  pliindern" — were  those  occupied  by  the  German 
spies,  known  as  "fixed  agents."  Germany  is  thought  to 
spend  $3,900,000  a  year  on  this  branch  of  her  spy  system; 
and  at  the  outbreak  of  the  present  war  the  number  of 
"fixed"  spies,  i.  e.,  spies  permanently  residing  in  a  coun- 
try, were  in  France  alone  over  15,000.  (51) 

The  reason  given  by  the  Germans  for  the  outrages  at 
Aerschot — that  the  15-year-old  son  of  the  burgomaster  shot 
a  German  officer — is  not  denied.  The  Germans  say  that  it 
was  part  of  a  pre-arranged  plan.  The  Belgians  say  that  the 
boy  was  acting  in  defence  of  his  sister's  honor.  No  one 
now  knows  certainly  which  story  was  true. 

But,  as  Dr.  Prince  says: 

"There  must  have  been  some  reason,  or  perhaps  the  boy  was 
a  fanatic,  or  half-witted.  Surely  no  sane  man,  and  surely  no 
man  holding  the  responsible  position  of  burgomaster,  would 
give  a  dinner  party  to  German  officers  and  arrange  to  have  his 
own  son  shoot  one  of  them,  knowing  that  there  was  no  escape 


112  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

from  the  consequences  of  such  an  act  committed  in  his  own 
home. 

"But  accept  either  story  you  like,  what  do  you  think  of  the 
commanding  officer,  of  the  mode  of  conducting  war,  that  exe- 
cutes several  score  of  the  leading  townsmen,  that  shoots  down 
women  and  children,  that  gives  over  the  women  to  the  soldiery, 
that  orders  the  sacking  of  the  houses  and,  finally,  the  burning 
down  of  the  town,  house  by  house,  because  a  boy  shot  an  officer  ? 

"Is  this  the  German  idea  of  a  'humane  way  of  waging  war?' 

"If  you  think  this  mode  quite  justified,  let  me  tell  you  how  it 
impressed  an  American,  one,  remember,  accustomed  to  the 
sights  of  war  in  many  lands: 

"'It  was  with  a  feeling  of  repulsion  amounting  almost  to 
nausea  that  we  left  what  had  once  been  Aerschot  behind  us.' " 

The  second  scene,  from  the  American  viewpoint,  is 
staged  at  Louvain.  Time — same. 

Mr.  Powell  says  it  was:  "Another  scene  of  destruction 
and  desolation."  He  describes  the  charred  skeletons  of  the 
handsome  buildings  and  says :  "The  fronts  of  many  of  the 
houses  were  smeared  with  crimson  stains."  He  continues : 

"In  comparison  to  its  size,  the  Germans  had  wrought  more 
widespread  destruction  in  Louvain  than  did  the  earthquake 
and  fire  combined  in  San  Francisco. 

"The  looting  had  evidently  been  unrestrained.  The  roads 
for  miles  in  either  direction  were  littered  with  furniture  and 
bedding  and  clothing.  Such  articles  as  the  soldiers  could  not 
carry  away  they  wantonly  destroyed.  Hangings  had  been  torn 
down,  pictures  on  the  walls  had  been  smashed,  the  contents  of 
drawers  and  trunks  had  been  emptied  into  the  streets,  literally 
everything  breakable  had  been  broken.  This  is  not  from  hear- 
say, remember,  /  saw  it  icdth  my  own  ~eyes.  And  the  amazing 
feature  of  it  all  was  that  among  the  Germans  there  seemed  to 
be  no  feeling  of  regret,  no  sense  of  shame.  Officers  in  immacu- 
late uniforms  strolled  about  among  the  ruins,  chatting  and 
laughing  and  smoking." 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  TEE  WAR  113 

The  orgy  of  blood  and  destruction  had  lasted  two  days. 

"Several  American  correspondents,  among  them  Mr.  Richard 
Harding  Davis,  who  were  being  taken  by  train  from  Brussels 
to  Germany,  and  who  were  held  for  some  hours  in  the  station 
at  Louvain  during  the  first  night's  massacre,  have  vividly  de- 
scribed the  horrors  which  they  witnessed  from  their  car  win- 
dow. On  the  second  day,  Mr.  Hugh  S.  Gibson,  secretary  of  the 
American  Legation  in  Brussels,  accompanied  by  the  Swedish 
and  Mexican  charge's,  drove  over  to  Louvain  in  a  taxicab. 
Mr.  Gibson  told  me  that  the  Germans  had  dragged  chairs  and  a 
dining-table  from  a  nearby  house  into  the  middle  of  the  square 
in  front  of  the  station  and  that  some  officers,  already  consid- 
erably the  worse  for  drink,  insisted  that  three  diplomatists  join 
them  in  a  bottle  of  wine.  And  this  while  the  city  was  burning 
and  rifles  were  cracking,  and  the  dead  bodies  of  men  and  women 
lay  sprawled  in  the  streets!" 

Dr.  Prince  adds,  addressing  Dr.  von  Mach: 

"Indeed,  their  'beautiful  home  and  soldier  songs,5  as  you  say, 

had  softened  their  hearts,  but  the  scene  is  a  different  one, 

isn't  it? 

"But  we  have  the  same  happy  soldiers,  'lounging,  talking  and 

laughing,'  just  as  your  professor  describes  them,  and  smoking 

and  drinking  (though  it  is  beer  and  wine  instead  of  coffee)  and 

'everybody  is  elated,'  just  as  you  say. 

"But  the  Belgian  townspeople,  what  of  them  ?    Do  the  happy 

soldiers  see  them?    I  don't  know." 

Louvain  was  not  destroyed  by  bombardment  or -in  the 
heat  of  battle.  The  Germans  had  entered  it  unopposed  and 
had  been  in  undisputed  possession  for  several  days. 

Mr.  Powell  had  an  interview  with  the  commanding  gen- 
eral, von  Boehn,  which  as  Dr.  Prince  says,  is  destined  to 
become  classic: 

"It  had  been  sought  by  the  general,  who  had  expressed  a 
wish  to  have  an  opportunity  to  talk  with  Mr.  Powell,  to  give 


114  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

him  the  German  version  of  the  treatment  of  the  Belgian  civil 
population  for  the  enlightenment  of  the  American  public.  Mr. 
Powell  was  accordingly  invited  to  dine  with  the  general.  Here 
is  more  of  the  conversation  as  given  by  the  former  as  'nearly 
verbatim'  as  he  could  remember  it. 

"'But  why  wreak  your  vengeance  on  women  and  children?' 
I  asked. 

"  'None  have  been  killed/  the  general  asserted  positively. 

"'I  as  sorry  to  contradict  you,  General/  I  asserted,  with 
equal  positiveness,  'but  I  have  myself  seen  their  bodies.  So 
has  Mr.  Gibson,  the  secretary  of  the  American  legation  in 
Brussels,  who  was  present  during  the  destruction  of  Louvain.' 

"  'Of  course/  replied  General  von  Boehn,  'there  is  always 
danger  of  women  and  children  being  killed  during  street  right- 
ing if  they  insist  on  coming  into  the  streets.  It  is  unfortunate, 
but  it  is  war!' 

"  'But  how  about  a  woman's  body  I  saw  with  the  hands  and 
feet  cut  off?  How  about  the  white-haired  man  and  his  son 
whom  I  helped  to  bury  outside  of  Sempst  who  had  been  killed 
merely  because  a  retreating  Belgian  soldier  had  shot  a  German 
soldier  outside  their  house? 

"'There  were  22  bayonet  wounds  in  the  old  man's  face.  I 
counted  them.  How  about  the  little  girl,  two  years  old,  who 
was  shot  while  in  her  mother's  arms  by  an  Uhlan  and  whose 
funeral  I  attended  at  Heyst-op-den-Berg?  How  about  the  old 
man  near  Vilvorde  who  was  hung  by  his  hands  from  the  rafters 
of  his  house  and  roasted  to  death  by  a  bonfire  being  built  under 
him?' 

"The  general  seemed  taken  aback  by  the  exactness  of  my  in- 
formation." 

I  have  not  space  to  quote  further  from  Dr.  Prince,  but 
I  hope  all  Americans  who  may  read  this  will  remember 
that  the  evidence  given  above  is  that  of  Americans,  of 
"neutrals/'  not  of  French,  or  Belgians,  or  British,  or 
Kussians.  I  would  ask  them  to  read  also  the  description 
of  his  own  mental  attitude  given  by  Mr.  Powell:  (52) 

"An  American,  I  went  to  Belgium  at  the  beginning  of  the 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  115 

war  with  an  open  mind.  I  had  few,  if  any,  prejudices.  I  knew 
the  English,  the  French,  the  Belgians,  the  Germans  equally 
well.  I  had  friends  in  all  four  countries  and  many  happy  rec- 
ollections of  days  I  had  spent  in  each.  When  I  left  Antwerp, 
after  the  German  occupation,  I  was  as  pro- Belgian  as  though  I 
had  been  born  under  the  red-black-and-yellow  banner.  I  had 
seen  a  country,  one  of  the  loveliest  and  most  peaceable  in 
Europe,  invaded  by  a  ruthless  and  brutal  soldiery;  I  had  seen 
its  towns  and  cities  blackened  by  fire  and  broken  by  shell;  I 
had  seen  its  churches  and  its  historic  monuments  destroyed;  I 
had  seen  its  highways  crowded  with  hunted,  homeless  fugitives; 
I  had  seen  its  fertile  fields  strewn  with  the  corpses  of  what  had 
once  been  the  manhood  of  the  nation ;  I  had  seen  its  women  left 
husbandless  and  its  children  fatherless;  I  had  seen  what  was 
once  a  Garden  of  the  Lord  turned  into  a  land  of  desolation ;  and 
I  had  seen  its  people — a  people  whom  I,  like  the  rest  of  the 
world,  had  always  thought  of  as  pleasure-loving,  inefficient, 
easygoing — I  had  seen  this  people,  I  say,  aroused,  resourceful, 
unafraid,  and  fighting,  fighting,  fighting.  Do  you  wonder  that 
they  captured  my  imagination,  that  they  won  my  admiration? 
I  am  pro-Belgian ;  I  admit  it  frankly.  I  should  be  ashamed  to 
be  anything  else." 

I  believe  that,  in  the  light  of  the  testimony  given  by  a 
writer,  who,  having  originally  been  as  nearly  impartial  as 
one  may  be  to-day,  and  by  the  other  fair-minded  Amer- 
icans also  quoted,  the  vast  majority  of  my  fellow-country- 
men will  agree  with  Dr.  Prince  when  he  thus,  apostrophizes 
some  of  the  more  conspicuous  German  apologists : 

"No,  Dr.  von  Mach,  you  and  your  fellow  propagandists,  Dr. 
Dernburg  and  Dr.  Munsterberg,  Dr.  Albert  and  others,  appeal 
in  vain  to  the  American  people.  You  do  not  know  the  true 
full-blooded  American  of  the  twentieth  century.  Americans  are 
governed  by  feelings  of  humanity,  of  pity,  of  mercy,  of  fair  play. 

"Those  are  the  ideals  of  our  national  conscience.  Americans 
believe  in  a  government  for  the  people  and  by  the  people,  not  in 
a  government  by  an  autocratic  military  caste,  without  pity, 
without  mercy,  without  regard  for  the  rights  of  mankind. 


116  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"If  I  read  the  signs  of  public  opinion  aright,  if  I  correctly 
understand  American  ideals  of  human  rights,  Germany  stands 
condemned  by  American  opinion.  America  cares  nothing  for 
the  'necessities  of  war/  whether  argued  as  an  excuse  for  crimes 
against  humanity  by  a  German  General  Staff  in  1914,  or  a 
'Spanish  Butcher'  in  Cuba  in  1898;  she  cares  nothing  for  fine- 
spun specious  arguments  as  to  why  Germany  was  not  to  blame 
for  the  invasion  of  Belgium.  She  sees  only  a  peaceful,  unof- 
fending nation  defending  her  inalienable  rights  to  her  own 
soil.  And  she  sees  the  inhabitants,  for  this  offense,  shot  down, 
and  their  houses,  one  by  one,  put  to  the  torch;  she  sees  tens  of 
thousands  of  homes  desolate,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  in- 
habitants driven  into  exile,  or  starving  and  dependent  upon 
American  charity — all  this,  mind  you,  not  as  a  sporadic  in- 
stance in  one  city,  but  repeatedly,  day  by  day,  in  many  cities 
and  towns;  and  not  as  unavoidable  accidents  from  the  shelling 
of  the  enemy  in  battle,  but  deliberately  and  systematically  and 
unnecessarily,  after  the  capture  and  occupation  of  the  city,  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  revenge,  to  overcome  resistance  by  terrorism, 
as  officially  proclaimed  and  officially  justified.  It  is  for  these 
reasons,  if  for  no  others,  that  Germany  appeals  in  vain  to 
American  sympathy." 

I  have  thus  far  cited  only  Americans,  no  Allies.  But  it 
may  be  permitted  to  offer  evidence  supplied  by  the  Ger- 
mans themselves.  In  addition  to  the  general  orders  above 
quoted  (p.  100  etseq.),  which  are  almost  sufficiently  damn- 
ing, we  have  many  involuntary  individual  confessions  in 
the  shape  of  diaries  found  on  German  prisoners.  There  are 
large  numbers  of  these  and  the  Marquis  de  Dampierre  is 
preparing  a  minute  and  exhaustive  report  upon  them.  In 
the  meanwhile  Prof.  Joseph  Bedier,  of  the  College  de 
France,  has  published  a  pamphlet  which  contains  a  selec- 
tion from  those  which  first  came  to  hand,  with,  in  each 
instance,  a  photographic,  reproduction  of  the  leaf  or  leaves 
quoted  from.  Nothing  could  be  more  direct  and  definite 
than  this  testimony.  It  is  impossible  to  imagine  it  to  have 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  117 

been  forged  or  in  any  way  tampered  with.  The  extracts, 
which  are  quoted  below,  are  in  every  case  those  of  which 
the  original  German  is  photographically  reproduced.  (53) 

I  translate  a  few  only. 

Paul  Spielmann  (of  Company  I,  Eeserve  Battalion,  In- 
fantry Brigade)  describes  a  night  surprise  at  a  village 
near  Blamont.  He  says : 

"The  inhabitants  have  fled  by  way  of  the  village.  It  was  hor- 
rible. Blood  is  glued  against  all  the  houses;  and  as  to  the 
faces  of  the  dead,  they  were  hideous.  They  were  buried  at 
once,  to  the  number  of  sixty;  among  them  many  old  women, 
some  old  men,  and  a  pregnant  woman,  all  frightful  to  see;  and 
three  children  who  were  cuddled  up  one  against  the  other  but 
were  all  dead.  The  altar  and  the  arches  of  the  church  were 
demolished. 

"These  people  had  telephoned  to  the  enemy!  And  this  morn- 
ing, September  2d,  the  survivors  have  been  expelled;  and  I 
saw  four  little  boys  carrying  on  two  sticks  a  cradle  with  a  baby 
of  five  to  six  months.  It  is  frightful  to  look  at — everything 
is  delivered  to  pillage.  ...  I  saw  also  a  mother  with  her 
two  little  ones,  one  of  them  with  a  great  wound  of  the  head, 
the  other  with  an  eyeball  burst." 

Private  Hassemer  (of  the  Eighth  Corps)  wrote: 

"3-9-1914 — At  Sommepy  (Marne) — Horrible  carnage — The 
village  burned  to  the  ground ;  the  French  thrown  into  the  burn- 
ing houses;  civilians  and  all  burned  together." 

Lieutenant  Kietzmann  (Second  Company  of  the  First 
Battalion  of  the  Forty-ninth  Eegiment  of  Infantry)  writes 
under  date  of  August  18th : 

"Near  Diest  lies  the  little  village  of  Schaffen.  About  fifty 
civilians  were  hidden  in  the  church  tower  and  thence  opened 
fire  on  our  troops  with  a  mitrailleuse — all  the  civilians  were 
shot." 


118  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

This  does  not  sound  quite  so  "atrocious/'  given  a  state 
of  war.  But  an  interesting  sidelight  on  this  execution  of 
"civilians"  is  thrown  on  this  scrap  of  diary  by  a  paragraph 
in  the  first  report  of  the  Belgian  Commission  of  Inquiry. 
It  says: 

"Killed  at  Schaffen,  August  18th  .  .  .  among  others 
.  .  .  the  wife  of  Francois  Luyckz,  aged  45  years,  with  her 
little  daughter,  aged  12.  They  were  discovered  in  a  drain 
&nd  were  shot.  The  daughter,  aged  9,  of  Jean  Ooyen,  was  shot. 
Andre"  Willem,  sexton,  was  tied  to  a  tree  and  burned  alive." 

This,  to  be  sure,  is  Belgian  testimony.  But,  taken  in 
conjunction  with  Lieutenant  Kietzmann's  diary,  it  seems 
fair  to  conclude  that  some  unpleasant  things  happened  at 
Schaffen  on  August  18th  last. 

A  Saxon  officer  (178th  Eegiment,  Twelfth  Army  Corps, 
First  Corps  of  Saxony)  writes,  to  his  everlasting  credit 
(unfortunately  his  name  was  not  on  his  diary)  : 

"August  26. — The  attractive  village  of  Gue*-d'Hossus  (Ar- 
dennes), although  it  seemed  to  me  itwocent,  was  delivered  to 
the  flames.  I  am  told  that  a  cyclist  had  fallen  from  his  wheel, 
his  gun  going  off  by  accident,  then  some  one  had  fired  in  his 
direction.  Therefore  all  the  male  inhabitants  have  simply  been 
thrown  into  the  flames.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  such  atrocities 
(Scheusslichkeiten)  will  not  be  repeated." 

Philipp  ,  a  private  (of  Kamenz,  in  Saxony,  First 

Company,  First  Battalion,  178th  Eegiment),  on  August 
23d  wrote: 

"At  ten  o'clock  this  evening  the  battalion  entered  a  village 
that  had  been  burned,  lying  to  the  north  of  Dinant.  The  sight 
made  one  shudder.  At  the  entrance  to  the  village  lay  about 
fifty  villagers,  shot  for  having  from  ambush  fired  upon  our 
troops.  In  the  course  of  the  night  many  others,  to  the  number 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  119 

of  more  than  two  hundred  were  shot.  Women  and  children 
were  forced  to  hold  lamps  in  their  hands  and  thus  assist  at  this 
horrible  spectacle.  Afterwards  we  ate  our  rice  among  the 
cadavers,  as  we  had  not  eaten  since  morning." 

Private  Schlauter  (Third  Battery.,  Fourth  Kegiment  of 
Field  Artillery)  wrote,  August  25th: 

"In  Belgium.  ...  of  the  citizens  about  300  were  shot. 
The  survivors  were  requisitioned  as  grave-diggers.  You  should 
have  seen  the  women  at  that  time!  But  there  was  nothing  else 
to  do." 

Professor  Bedier  also  gives  three  facsimiles  of  portions  of 
an  article  by  Under-Officer  Klemt,  published  in  the 
Jauersclies  Tageblatt,  October  18,  1914.  It  is  entitled:  "A 
Day  of  Honor  for  Our  Eegiment,  24  September,  1914." 
His  description  refers  to  an  incident  which  occurred  near 
the  little  village  of  Hannonville,  when,  after  a  skirmish, 
his  soldiers  came  upon  some  wounded  Frenchmen  lying  in 
a  little  depression. 

He  says  they  killed  them  by  clubbing  them  or  running 
them  through.  He  goes  on : 

"At  my  side  I  hear  some  peculiar  crackings;  they  are 
blows  from  a  gun~buit  with  which  a  soldier  of  our  154th 
is  striking  the  bald  head  of  a  Frenchman;  very  wisely  he 
is  using  for  this  work  a  French  gun,  for  fear  of  breaking 
his  own.  The  men  with  especially  sensitive  souls  do  the 
wounded  Frenchmen  the  honor  -of  finishing  them  with  a 
bullet;  but  the  others  hack  and  hew  as  hard  as  they  can. 
Our  adversaries  had  fought  courageously  .  .  .  but  whether 
they  were  wounded  slightly  or  gravely  our  brave  fellows 
saved  for  their  Fatherland  the  expensive  care  which  it 
would  have  been  obliged  to  give  to  so  many  enemies." 

The  accuracy  of  Klemt's  narrative  was  attested  by  his 


120  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

superior,  Lieutenant  von  JSTiem.  The  eloquent  author  of 
the  article  asserts  that  His  Boyal  Highness,  Prince  Oskar 
of  Prussia,  when  he  heard  of  the  exploits  of  the  154th,  said 
that  it,  and  a  grenadier  regiment  that  made  up  the  brigade, 
were  worthy  of  the  name  "Konigsbrigade !" 

I  can  spare  room  for  the  reproduction  of  only  one  of  the 
original  pages  of  these  diaries.  (See  opposite  page.) 

I  have  selected  my  quotations  almost  at  random. 
There  are  many  more  to  be  found  in  Prof.  Bedier's  pam- 
phlet and  a  much  larger  number  that,  as  I  have  said,  will 
be  published  later  in  fac-simile,  after  study  and  arrange- 
ment by  an  expert  cartographer. 

It  may  be  that  someone  who  takes  the  trouble  to  read 
them  will  remain  unconvinced.  They  seem  to  me  conclu- 
sive, -but  may  not  seem  so  to  everyone. 

But,  I  may  ask  then,  what  is  the  indisputable  German 
record  as  to  Belgium? 

Thousands  of  civilians  have  been  killed;  tens  of  thou- 
sands have  been  rendered  homeless  and  are  living  on 
charity;  many  miles  of  Belgian  territory  have  been  occu- 
pied by  German  invaders;  the  stories  of  Aerschot,  Ter- 
monde,  Louvain,  Liege,  Namur,  Eheims  are  known  to  all; 
fines  of  millions  of  francs  have  been  levied  as  a  punish- 
ment for  resistance  to  a  brutal  breach  of  neutrality.  Is  it, 
after  all,  worth  while  to  seek  for  evidence  of  other  atroci- 
ties? These  are  known  to,  and  have  been  condemned  by 
the  whole  civilized  world.  As  David  Starr  Jordan  has  well 
expressed  it:  (54) 

"To  'hack  a  way  through*  civilization  is  the  sum  of  outrages, 
by  whomsoever  committed,  or  whatever  the  details  of  the 
method  by  which  it  is  accomplished.  To  consider  excuses  or 
apologies  for  details  is  in  some  degree  to  condone  the  real 
offense. 


*»^^ 


| 


FROM  THE  DIARY  OF  PRIVATE  PAUL  GLODE. 


GERMAN  TEXT. 

See  facsimile  on  reverse  side. 

"[Von  der  Wut  der  Soldaten  kann  man  sich  ein  Bild  machen, 
Avenn  man  die  zerstorten]  Dorfer  sieht.  Kein  Haus  1st  mehr 
ganz.  Alles  essbare  Avird  von  einzelnen  Soldaten  requiriert. 
Mehrere  Haufen  Menschen  sah  man,  die  standrechtlich  erschossen 
Avurden.  Kleine  Schweinchen  liefen  umher  und  such  ten  ihre 
Mutter.  Hunde  lagen  an  der  Kette  und  hatten  nichts  zu  fressen 
und  zu  saufen  und  liber  ihnen  brannten  die  Hauser. 

"Neben  der  gerechten  Wut  der  Soldaten  schreitet  aber  auch 
purer  Vandalismus.  In  ganz  leeren  Dorfer  setzen  sie  den  roten 
Hahn  ganz  Willkiirlich  auf  die  Hauser.  Mir  tun  die  Leute  leit. 
Wenn  sie  auch  unfaire  Waffen  gebrauchen,  so  A^erteidigen  sie  doch 
nur  ihr  Vaterland.  Die  Grausamkeiten  die  veriibt  Avurden  und 
noch  AA^erden  von  seiten  der  Biirger  Averden  wust  geracht. 

"Verstummelungen  der  Verwundeten  sind  an  Tagesordnung." 

TRANSLATION. 

"August  12,  1914.  In  Belgium.  One  gets  an  idea  of  the  mad- 
ness of  our  soldiers  Avhen  one  sees  the  demolished  villages.  Not 
a  single  house  intact.  Everything  eatable  has  been  taken  by  the 
soldiery.  I  saw  many  heaps  of  human  beings  who  had  been 
sentenced  and  executed.  Little  pigs  ran  around  among  them, 
seeking  their  mothers.  Dogs,  without  food  or  Avater,  were 
chained  among  the  burning  houses.  Sheer  A^andalism  Avas  present 
as  well  as  just  anger.  •  To  A'illages  already  absolutely  abandoned 
our  soldiers  arbitrarily  applied  the  incendiary  torch  ("den  roten 
Hahn,"  "the  Red  Cock").  The  inhabitants  made  one  sorry. 
If  they  did  employ  unfair  weapons  they  AA'ere  after  all  defending 
Ili-rir  Fatherland.  The  atrocities  that  those  villagers  commit  or 
have  committed  are  avenged  in  a  barbarous  manner. 
" The  mutilation  of  the  wounded  is  a  daily  routine." 
"[From  the  diary  of  Private  Paul  Glode,  of  the  9th  Battalion 
of  Pioneers  (9th  Corps)  ]." 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  131 

"The  huge  fact  of  the  crushing  of  Belgium  submerges  all 
details.  Our  thought  is  expressed  in  these  words  of  Emerson: 
'What  you  are  speaks  so  loudly  we  cannot  hear  what  you  say.' " 

An  American  paper  (55)  has  well  summed  up  this 
aspect  of  the  matter.  It  says  that  even  if  we  made  the 
acquittal  of  the  German  private  soldier  as  broad  and  sweep- 
ing as  it  could  be  made,  there  have,  nevertheless,  been 
atrocities,  aside  from  those  attributed  to  the  individual, 
atrocities  committed  by  the  German  Government.  It  con- 
tinues : 

"The  German  Government  sowed  the  North  Sea  with  mines 
and  blew  up  harmless  trawlers  coming  from  the  Scandinavian 
countries  and  Holland.  The  German  Government  sent  airships 
over  Antwerp,  Paris,  Warsaw,  and  many  undefended  and  un- 
fortified towns  and  villages  in  France,  Belgium,  and  Poland,  and 
scattered  death  and  destruction  impartially  on  home,  shop,  and 
farm.  The  German  Government  dispatched  , warships  to  the 
coast  of  England  and  killed  women  and  children  in  Whitby, 
Hartlepool,  Scarborough,  and  Yarmouth.  The  German  Govern- 
ment revived  the  mediaeval  custom  of  holding  hostages  and 
killing  them  if  the  population  from  which  they  came  committed 
any  infraction  of  the  rules  of  war.  The  German  Government 
held  cities  for  ransom.  The  German  Government  has  now  com- 
pleted its  record  of  atrocities  by  declaring  a  war  zone  around 
England  and  putting  the  ships  of  every  neutral  nation  on  notice 
that  if  they  venture  into  that  zone  they  may  be  sunk  with  all 
on  board! 

"These  are  the  real  atrocities.  What  difference  does  it  make 
that  exuberant  liars  in  the  early  days  of  the  war  may  have 
ascribed  to  the  German  private  a  ferocity  that  was  not  his? 
Probably  he  did  not  cut  off  the  hands  of  Belgian  women;  prob- 
ably he  did  not  spear  French  babies  on  his  bayonet.  But  his 
superior  officers  had  given  him  a  lesson  in  ruthless  brutality,  in 
reversion  to  barbarity,  to  seek  a  parallel  for  which  we  should 
have  to  go  to  the  Indian  raids  on  the  Colonies,  and  if  he  omitted 
to  follow  that  suggestion  it  is  vastly  to  his  credit.  The  atroci- 
ties, if  by  that  word  we  mean  individual  cruelty,  may  be  dis- 


122  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

missed;  but  how  is  the  German,  Government  going  to  make  its 
defense  at  the  bar  of  the  civilized  world  when  it  is  arraigned 
on  the  charge  of  ordering  atrocities  on  a  vaster  scale  than  it 
would  ever  enter  into  the  mind  of  a  private  soldier,  however, 
depraved  he  might  be,  to  conceive? 

"There  is  an  active  German  propaganda  in  this  country.  Its 
agents  are  tireless.  But  there  is  an  agency  far  more  powerful 
at  work  in  behalf  of  the  cause  for  which  England  and  France 
and  Russia  are  fighting.  It  is  the  wireless  telegraph  station  at 
Sayville,  which  receives  and  gives  out  the  official  reports  and 
declarations  of  the  German  Government." 

A  book  (56),  which  Professor  J.  H.  Morgan  has  just 
translated,  the  notorious  "Kriegsbrauch  im  Landkriege^ 
or  "German  War  Book/'  issued  by  the  German  General 
Staff,  for  the  instruction  of  officers,  is  in  itself  alomst  suf- 
ficient evidence  of  their  inhuman  and  barbarous  methods. 

"It  asserts  the  rules  of  war  as  they  are  understood  by  the 
Prussian  military  school,  justifying  by  rote  all  those  practices 
which  have  amazed  the  world  at  Aerschot,  Rheims,  and  Louvain. 
The  German  General  Staff,  clause  by  clause,  destroys  in  these 
pages  every  safeguard  which  through  centuries  of  civilizing 
effort  has  been  erected  to  soften  the  rigour  of  war  so  far  as 
this  may  be  done  consistently  with  war's  purpose.  The  pro- 
fession of  arms  is  stripped  of  all  honour.  Under  the  terms 
of  these  German  regulations  the  practice  of  war  is  not  possible 
to  an  honorable  man.  The  German  officer  is  required 
to  terrify  the  helpless  into  betraying  their  own  people,  to 
murder  prisoners,  to  retain  women  and  children  under  fire,  to 
levy  blackmail  upon  surrendered  cities,  to  compel  the  civilian 
enemy  to  prepare  works  for  the  destruction  of  his  country, 
to  suborn  incendiaries  and  assassins.  Upon  all  these  matters 
the  German  War-Book  is  explicit.  .  .  .  We  will  take  two 
instances  illustrating  the  German  idea  of  war.  On  marching 
into  the  enemy-country  the  German  officer  is  instructed  to 
require  from  the  inhabitants  the  services  of  native  guides 
to  enable  him  the  more  easily  to  locate  and  destroy  the 
defenders.  Should  these  unwilling  guides  lead  the  invader 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  123 

astray  they  must  necessarily  be  shot.  The  guide,  we  are  told, 
'owed  obedience  to  the  power  in  occupation.'  He  has  been 
guilty  of  'passive  disobedience*  by  neglecting  to  locate  his 
comrades  in  order  that  they  might  be  destroyed:  'The  leaders 
of  the  troops  cannot  do  otherwise  than  punish  the  offender 
with  death,  since  only  by  harsh  measures  of  defense  and 
intimidation  can  the  repetition  of  such  offences  be  prevented.' 
It  does  not  seem  to  occur  to  the  German  War  Staff  that  pro- 
ceedings which  require  that  civilians  shall  be  shot  for  refusing 
to  betray  their  country  are  in  the  least  blameworthy.  Our 
second  instance  restores  the  practices  of  war  as  they  were 
understood  in  the  Middle  Ages.  It  has  always  been  held  by  the 
historians  as  a  blot  upon  the  fame  of  a  great  English  King 
that  four  hundred  years  ago  the  women  and  children  of  a 
French  town  were  refused  a  free  passage  through  the  lines. 
The  Kriegsbrauch  of  modern  Germany  allows  and  glorifies  an 
act  which  four  centuries  ago  was  felt  to  be  needlessly  inhuman. 
It  is  laid  down  in  the  German  War-Book  that  the  defender 
of  a  fortress  must  not  be  allowed  to  strengthen  himself  by 
sending  away  to  a  place  of  safety  the  women,  children,  old 
people,  and  wounded.  To  allow  helpless  non-combatants  to 
pass  through  one's  lines  is  'in  fundamental  conflict  with  the 
principles  of  war.'  Will  not  these  women,  children,  old  people, 
and  wounded  gravely  embarrass  the  defenders?  May  not  their 
slaughter  by  shot  and  shell  induce  the  garrison  to  surrender 
a  little  sooner?  'The  very  presence  of  such  persons,'  says  the 
German  book  of  war,  'may  accelerate  the  surrender  of  the 
place  in  certain  circumstanes,  and  it  would  therefore  be  foolish 
of  a  besieger  to  renounce  voluntarily  his  advantage."' 

As  The  Outlook  said  about  the  raid  on  Scarborough: 
(57) 

"The  victims  were  not  soldiers,  but  civilians,  and  to  a  large 
extent  women  and  children.  What  military  advantage  commen- 
surate with  the  effort  and  risk  can  come  from  such  a  raid  is 
hard  to  say,  but  one  great  disadvantage  has  resulted.  Germany 
is  making  a  great  effort  to  secure  the  approval  of  American 
sentiment.  Such  a  raid  as  this  nullifies  the  arguments  of  Ger- 
man representatives.  Americans  are  not  won  by  exploits  that 


124  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  FAB 

end  in  the  killing  of  women  and  babies;  and  all  the  reasoning 
in  the  world  will  not  conceal  the  fact  that  the  raid  on  Scar- 
borough was  an  exploit  of  this  kind." 

But  the  question  that  heads  this  chapter  can  hardly  be 
adequately  answered  by  consideration  only  of  the  atrocities 
of  war.  There  are  other  forms  of  "atrocity,"  diplomatic 
and  controversial  for  example. 

The  best  instance,,  because  at  this  writing  the  most 
recent  and  most  conspicuous,  is  the  effort  which  Germany 
and  the  German  apologists  are  making  to  shift  the  respon- 
sibility for  the  Belgian  outrage  to  the  shoulders  of  the 
Belgians  themselves. 

This  added  German  crime,  this  contemptible  attempt 
to  make  it  appear  to  the  American  people  that  Belgium 
has  herself  been  "guilty"  and  "criminal"  and  is  merely 
receiving  just  chastisement,  is  so  significant  that  I  do  not 
want  the  opinion  I  have  expressed  to  seem  to  be  only  a 
personal  one. 

The  matter  is  adequately  dealt  with  by  one  of  our 
American  paper.  (58)  It  begins: 

"It  is  an  evidence,  we  suppose,  of  that  admirable  efficiency 
which  marks  the  Teutonic  character  that  Germany  is  still 
making  relentless  war  upon  Belgium — not  only  against  the 
army,  but  against  the  people;  not  only  to  destroy  the  nation's 
independence,  but  to  blast  the  good  name  it  has  won  by  heroic 
sacrifice. 

"Were  it  not  for  the  testimony  of  Louvain  and  of  the  huge 
war  levies  extorted  from  the  famine-stricken  country,  it  would 
be  incredible  that  a  civilized  government  should  deliberately  seek 
to  traduce  a  people  whom  it  had  already  wronged  and  robbed. 
Not  satisfied  with  bloody  conquest,  Germany  is  determined  to 
strip  her  victim  even  of  honor — would  brand  her  as  guilty  of 
broken  faith,  the  very  offense  to  which  Germany  herself  has 
officially  confessed.  The  persistence  of  this  campaign  makes 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  125 

it  necessary  to  keep  the  record  straight  before  the  American 
people. 

"The  present  attack  started  a  couple  of  months  ago  with 
the  announcement  that  the  invaders,  rummaging  through 
government  papers  in  Brussels,  had  found  documents  proving 
that  'Belgium  violated  her  own  neutrality'  in  1906  by  agreeing 
to  the  landing  of  British  troops  in  case  of  war. 

"For  weeks  this  odious  charge  was  trumpeted  to  the  world, 
with  all  the  offensive  comment  that  enmity  could  invent.  Having 
exhausted  the  resources  of  unsupported  slander,  Germany  has 
at  last  published  the  documents,  with  an  adroit  elucidation  by 
Dr.  Bernhard  Dernburg,  special  publicity  agent  of  Germany  in 
this  country." 

The  editorial  then  cites  the  facts  as  to  the  violation  of 
the  treaty  of  Belgium  and  says  that,  as  to  them,  there  is  no 
controversy,  as  the  German  Government  had  confessed  its 
own  guilt  and  pleaded  "military  necessity."  The  out- 
burst of  condemnation  that  followed  its  crime,  however, 
caused  this  attitude  to  be  abandoned,  and  the  so-called 
"secret  documents"  provided  a  pretense  for  completing  the 
crushing  of  Belgium,  by  denouncing  her  as  a  dishonorable 
plotter  against  Germany's  security. 

"Nothing  more  revolting  in  its  cold-blooded  injustice 
was  ever  perpetrated  in  international  controversy,"  the 
editorial  continues,  "but  the  studied  effort  to  heap  insult 
upon  injury  will  make  Belgium's  case  more  than  ever  the 
cause  of  civilization." 

It  then  tells  the  story  of  the  "secret  documents,"  which 
need  not  here  be  set  forth  (see  pp.  263-76),  the  charge 
which  was  falsely  and  maliciously  founded  upon  them,  and 
goes  on : 

"When  one  thinks  of  the  ruined  cities  and  famine-haunted 
people  of  Belgium,  of  the  sufferings  endured  by  that  nation  to 
keep  inviolate  its  pledged  word,  it  is  difficult  to  characterize 
adequately  the  malignant  craft  of  this  charge. 


126  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"The  very  documents  produced  in  its  support,  confidential 
as  they  were,  recorded  in  plain  terms  Belgium's  absolute  deter- 
mination to  stand  by  her  obligations  of  neutrality — not  only 
against  Germany,  but  against  France  or  England  or  any  other 
country — and  they  as  plainly  reveal  Germany  as  the  sole 
menace  to  that  neutrality,  just  as  the  event  proved. 

"Yet  Doctor  Dernburg,  who  is  of  course  the  chief  protagonist 
in  this  country,  has  the  audacity  to  cite  these  memoranda  as 
evidence  of  what  he  calls  Belgium's  'guilt'!  In  the  hope,  no 
doubt,  that  Americans  would  read  his  preface  and  ignore  the 
documents  themselves,  he  delibrately  suppresses  paragraphs 
which  prove  Belgium's  scrupulous  insistence  upon  her  neu- 
trality and  Great  Britain's  steady  recognition  thereof. 

"  'Plans  had  been  concerted/  he  says,  'to  invade  Belgium,  in 
1906.'  Here  he  accuses  the  British  of  plotting  and  the  Belgians 
of  consenting  to  a  violation  of  the  treaty  of  neutrality.  He 
says,  further: 

"  'The  imperial  Chancellor  has  declared  that  there  was  irref- 
utable proof  that  if  Germany  did  not  march  through  Belgium 
her  enemies  would.  This  proof,  as  now  being  produced,  is  of 
the  strongest  character.' 

"Doctor  Dernburg  makes  his  outrageous  charge  in  the  face 
of  the  following  explicit  passages  in  the  papers: 

'"Colonel  Barnardiston  (the  British  attache*)  referred  to  the 
anxieties  of  the  General  Staff  of  his  country  with  regard  to 
the  general  political  situation  and  because  of  the  possibility 
that  war  may  soon  break  out.  In  case  Belgium  should  be 
attacked,  the  sending  of  about  100,000  troops  was  provided 
for.  .  .  .  The  landing  of  the  English  troops  would  take 
place  on  the  French  coast  in  the  vicinity  of  Dunkirk  and 
Calais.  The  entry  of  the  English  into  Belgium  would  take 
place  only  after  the  violation  of  our  neutrality  by  Germany.' 
"These  provisos,  carefully  avoided  by  the  German  publicity 
agent,  prove  that  the  projected  British  'invasion'  was  to  take 
place  only  in  the  event  of  and  following  a  German  invasion. 
The  arrangement  was  as  creditable  to  Great  Britain — a  guar- 
antor of  the  neutrality  treaty — as  the  unprovoked  assault  last 
August  by  Germany  was  dishonorable.  The  'guilt'  of  Belgium 
consisted  in  consulting  the  neighbors  as  to  what  should  be  done 
in  case  of  an  expected  incursion  by  a  burglar. 

"The  event  shows  that  the  precaution  was  eminently  justified, 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  127 

and  that  Britain's  offense  lay  not  in  plans  of  aggression,  but  in 
unpreparedness  to  fulfill  her  obligations  to  defend  the  neutrality 
she  had  guaranteed. 

"Exactly  the  same  condition  applies  to  the  1912  memorandum. 
Belgium  therein  gave  notice  that  even  to  save  her  territory  she 
would  not  yield  to  a  British  landing  made  without  her  consent. 
And  that  landing,  also,  was  to  be  made  only  in  case  Germany 
had  first  forsworn  her  pledged  word  and  had  violated  the 
neutrality  for  which  she  was  in  part  responsible. 

"A  third  Dernburg  paragraph  almost  answers  itself.  The 
government  that  would  speak  of  the  'guilt  of  Belgian*  all  but 
forfeits  its  place  in  the  family  of  nations. 

"Germany's  intention  to  invade  Belgium  instantly  on  the 
outbreak  of  war  had  been  proclaimed  and  advertised  and 
boasted  for  years  in  the  published  works  of  her  military  strate- 
gists. If  Belgium  had  not  'concerted  plans'  with  Britain  and 
France  to  defend  herself,  she  would  have  been  guilty  of  supreme 
folly;  and  if  Great  Britain  had  not  prepared  for  action  to 
follow  a  German  assault  upon  Belgium,  she  would  have  been 
false  to  her  pledged  word. 

"The  complaint  that  Belgium  did  not  'approach'  Germany 
in  the  same  manner  is  surely  the  very  acme  of  irony,  for  she 
had  already  received  notice  that  Germany  would  tear  up  the 
'scrap  of  paper'  to  which  her  imperial  pledge  had  been  given, 
and  would  invoke  'necessity,  which  knows  no  law.' 

"But  abstract  arguments  and  documentary  evidence  alike  can 
be  put  aside  when  the  world  examines  the  actual  events.  No 
advocacy  can  explain  away  the  facts  that  Belgium  was  true 
to  her  neutrality;  that  France  did  not  violate  it;  that  Great 
Britain  did  not,  and  that  Germany  did;  that  German  armies 
had  been  for  some  time  overrunning  Belgium  before  a  French 
or  British  detachment  set  foot  on  the  violated  territory. 

"  'Only  our  prompt  action  at  Liege,'  says  Doctor  Dernburg, 
with  astounding  hardihood,  'prevented  the  English  landing  and 
invading  Belgium.'  Evidently  he  thinks  Americans  never  saw 
a  map  of  Belgium ;  the  taking  of  Liege  could  not  possibly  inter- 
fere with  a  British  invasion — as  a  fact,  the  city  has  been  held 
by  the  Germans  for  months,  yet  the  landing  of  British  troops 
has  never  been  interfered  with. 

"Equally  deceptive  is  the  generality  that  'all  Belgium's 
fortresses  are  on  the  eastern  frontier.'  Namur  is  near  the 


128  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

border  of  France,  and  could  not  possibly  menace  a  German  army 
unless  that  army  had  penetrated  one-third  way  across  Belgium. 

"Doctor  Dernburg  is  more  himself  when  he  frankly  states 
that  'the  Belgian  people  had  been  told  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war  that  Germany  demanded  that  the  Belgian  force  should  fight 
with  the  Germans  against  the  French  and  English.'  This  was 
the  true  German  conception  of  neutrality  and  of  the  'scrap  of 
paper'  to  which  her  imperial  word  was  attached. 

"We  have  given  this  much  space  to  a  renewed  discussion  of 
the  Belgian  question  because  it  is,  to  Americans,  the  vital 
issue  of  the  war.  It  embraces  rights  and  principles  which  are 
fundamental  to  every  nation's  security  and  the  very  per- 
manence of  civilization.  And  most  neutrals ,  will  give  small 
heed  to  German  pleas  about  'Russian  barbarism.'  'French 
revenge'  or  'British  greed'  while  the  corpse  of  Belgium's  mur- 
dered nationality  appeals  for  justice. 

"The  violation  of  that  country  was  a  moral,  a  legal  and  an 
international  offense  for  which  there  can  be  no  excuse  and  no 
palliation.  It  was  a  barbarous  wrong,  a  defiance  to  civilization, 
an  act  of  perfidy  without  parallel  in  history;  because  it  was 
committed  in  an  age  when  the  obligations  of  honor  and  decency 
are  stronger  than  at  any  other  period  of  human  development. 

"There  are  issues  of  the  war  the  responsibility  for  which 
must  be  shared  with  Germany  by  other  countries.  But  concern- 
ing Belgium  her  guilt  is  unique  and  undivided.  And  it  will 
grow  more  odious  with  every  effort  she  makes  to  shift  it  to  her 
victim,  though  she  produces  documents  enough  to  choke  the 
Kiel  canal." 

I  do  not  apologize  for  the  space  I  have  given  here  and 
elsewhere  to  the  case  of  Belgium  vs.  Germany.  It  is  not 
only  to  Americans  "the  vital  issue  of  the  war53  as  regards 
things  past.  It  is  also  of  supreme  importance  in  all  its 
relations;  in  the  cold-blooded  perpetration  of  the  crime, 
in  the  barefaced  avowal  that  it  ivas  a  crime,  in  the  deceit- 
ful withdrawal  of  that  avowal  when  the  outraged  moral 
sense  of  the  world  was  realized,  in  the  clumsy,  blundering 
efforts  to  explain  it  away,  in  the  barbarous  atrocities  that 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  129 

followed  it,  and  finally  in  this  last  contemptible  attempt 
by  the  juggling  of  documents,  the  glossing  over  of  essential 
sentences,  the  actual  suppression  of  important  paragraphs, 
to  make  it  seem  to  the  American  people,  that  Belgium,  if 
she  is,  by  ill  fate,  destined  to  disappear  from  the  face  of  the 
earth,  does  so  as  a  shameful  suicide  instead  of  as  the  victim 
of  a  brutal  international  murder. 

The  question  at  the  head  of  this  chapter  is  most  cer- 
tainly and  unhesitatingly  to  be  answered  in  the  negative. 


CHAPTEE  V. 

In  What  Estimation  Does  America  To-day  Hold  Belgium? 

If  time  had  permitted  that  the  opportunity  be  offered 
there  would  have  been  a  thousand  American  contributions 
to  the  tribute  paid  to  the  King  of  Belgium,  known  as  "King 
Albert's  Book/5  Colonel  Koosevelt,  for  example,  who  is  as 
well  known  to  all  peoples  of  the  world  as  any  living  Ameri- 
can, and  as  much  respected,  does  not  appear  as  a  contribu- 
tor. But  he  has,  characteristically  and  unequivocally  ex- 
pressed his  views  in  his  book,  just  published:  (59) 

"Luxembourg  made  no  resistance.  It  is  now  practically 
incorporated  in  Germany.  Other  nations  have  almost  forgotten 
its  existence  and  not  the  slightest  attention  has  been  paid  to 
its  fate;  simply  because  it  did  not  fight;  simply  because  it 
trusted  solely  to  peaceful  measures  and  to  the  treaties  which 
were  supposed  to  guarantee  it  against  harm.  The  eyes  of  the 
world,  however,  are  on  Belgium  because  the  Belgians  have 
fought  hard  and  gallantly  for  all  that  makes  life  best  worth 
having  to  honorable  men  and  women.  In  consequence,  Belgium 
has  been  trampled  under  foot.  At  this  moment  not  only  her 
men  but  her  women  and  children  are  enduring  misery  BO 
dreadful  that  it  is  hard  for  us  who  live  at  peace  to  visualize  it 
to  ourselves." 

****** 

"When  once  Belgium  was  invaded,  every  circumstance  of 
national  honor  and  interest  forced  England  to  act  precisely  as 
she  did  act.  She  could  not  have  held  up  her  head  among 
nations  had  she  acted  otherwise.  In  particular,  she  is  entitled 
to  the  praise  of  all  true  lovers  of  peace,  for  it  is  only  by  action 
such  as  she  took  that  neutrality  treaties  and  treaties  guar- 
anteeing the  rights  of  small  powers  will  ever  be  given  any 
value.  The  actions  of  Sir  Edward  Grey  as  he  guided  Britain's 
(130) 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  131 

foreign  policy   showed  adherence  to   lofty  standards  of  right 
combined  with  firmness  of  courage  under  great  strain." 

****** 

"There  is  one  nation,  however,  as  to  which  there  is  no  room 
for  difference  of  opinion,  whether  we  consider  her  wrongs  or  the 
justice  of  her  actions.  It  seems  to  me  impossible  that  any 
man  can  fail  to  feel  the  deepest  sympathy  with  a  nation  which 
is  absolutely  guiltless  of  any  wrongdoing,  which  has  given  proof 
of  high  valor,  and  yet  which  has  suffered  terribly,  and  which, 
if  there  is  any  meaning  in  the  words  'right'  and  'wrong,'  has 
suffered  wrongfully.  Belgium  is  not  in  the  smallest  degree 
responsible  for  any  of  the  conditions  that  during  the  last  half 
century  have  been  at  work  to  impress  a  certain  fatalistic 
stamp  upon  those  actions  of  Austria,  Russia,  Germany,  and 
France  which  have  rendered  this  war  inevitable.  No  European 
nation  has  had  anything  whatever  to  fear  from  Belgium. 
There  was  not  the  smallest  danger  of  her  making  any  aggressive 
movement,  not  even  the  slightest  aggressive  movement,  against 
any  of  her  neighbors.  Her  population  was  mainly  industrial 
and  was  absorbed  in  peaceful  business.  Her  people  were  thrifty, 
hard-working,  highly  civilized,  and  in  no  way  aggressive.  She 
owed  her  national  existence  to  the  desire  to  create  an  abso- 
lutely neutral  State.  Her  neutrality  had  been  solemnly  guaran- 
teed by  the  great  Powers,  including  Germany  as  well  as  England 
and  France. 

"Suddenly,  and  out  of  a  clear  sky,  her  territory  was  invaded 
by  an  overwhelming  German  army." 

"The  Germans  are  in  Belgium  from  no  fault  of  the  Belgians, 
but  purely  because  the  Germans  deemed  it  to  their  vital  interest 
to  violate  Belgium's  rights.  Therefore  the  ultimate  responsi- 
bility for  what  has  occurred  at  Louvain,  and  what  has  occurred 
and  is  occurring  in  Brussels  rests  upon  Germany  and  in  no  way 
upon  Belgium.  The  invasion  could  have  been  averted  by  no 
action  of  Belgium  that  was  consistent  with  her  honor  and  self- 
respect.  The  Belgians  would  have  been  less  than  men  had  they 
not  defended  themselves  and  their  country."  .  .  . 

"The  prime  fact  as  regards  Belgium  is  that  Belgium  was  an 
entirely  peaceful  and  genuinely  neutral  power  which  had  been 
guilty  of  no  offence  whatever.  What  has  befallen  her  is  due  to 
the  further  fact  that  a  great,  highly  civilized  military  power 


132  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

deemed  that  its  own  vital  interests  rendered  imperative  the  in- 
fliction of  this  suffering  on  an  inoffensive  although  valiant  and 
patriotic  little  nation." 

These  writings  of  Colonel  Eoosevelt  represent  the  opin- 
ion— the  fixed}  unalterable,  intense  and  practically  unani- 
mous opinion  of  all  Americans,  except  that  portion  of  the 
German-Americans  that  has  been  allowed  to  represent — or 
misrepresent — them  in  public.  This  opinion  is  no  less  well 
set  forth  by  the  following  distinguished  Americans  who 
contributed  to  "King  Albert's  Book." 

"Under  the  gallant  lead  of  the  heroic  Belgian  King,  his 
downtrodden  and  afflicted  people  have  been  fighting  for  liberty, 
and  to  maintain  the  plighted  faith  of  nations,  which  guaran- 
teed it  to  them.  Those  who  were  guilty  of  an  awful  breach  of 
faith,  confessed  their  crime  while  in  the  act  of  committing  it, 
and  pleaded  necessity  to  absolve  them  from  all  law,  a  plea 
which  the  whole  civilized  world  refuses  to  accept. 

"For  their  bold  stand  for  right  and  duty,  the  Belgians, 
guiltless  of  all  offense,  have  been  overwhelmed  by  numbers, 
trampled  in  the  dust,  and  reduced  to  starvation,  their  homes 
destroyed,  their  whole  country  devastated  and  converted  into  a 
human  slaughter-house. 

"In  this  sad  plight,  they  have  deserved  and  are  receiving  the 
sympathy  and  the  helping  hand  of  people  of  every  civilized 
nation  in  this  hour  of  their  dire  distress. 

"I  am  glad  to  know  that  my  countrymen  are  sending  material 
relief  to  the  sufferers,  and  with  it  the  hearts  of  our  people  go 
out  to  them  and  their  brave  king,  in  human  sympathy,  un- 
feigned and  unrestrained. 

"As  neutrals,  by  international  law  and  by  our  own  law,  our 
hands  are  tied  and  will  remain  so.  But  our  hearts  go  whither 
they  list." — Hon.  Joseph  H.  Choate. 

"BELGIUM 

"Ruined?    Destroyed?    Ah,  no;  though  blood  in  rivers  ran 
Down  all  her  ancient  streets;  though  treasures  manifold 
Love-wrought,  time-mellowed,  and  beyond  the  price  of  gold 

Are  lost,  yet  Belgium's  star  shines  still  in  God's  vast  plan. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  133 

''Rarely  have  kings  been  great,  since  kingdoms  first  began; 

Rarely  have  great  kings  been  great  men,  when  all  was  told. 

But,  by  the  lighted  torch  in  mailed  hands,  behold 
Immortal  Belgium's  immortal  king,  and  man." 

—Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox. 

"La  Belgique  ne  regrette  rien" 
"Not  with  her  ruined  silver  spires, 

Not  with  her  cities  shamed  and  rent, 
Perish  the  imperishable  fires 

That  shape  the  homestead  from  the  tent. 

"Wherever  men  are  staunch  and  free, 
There  shall  she  keep  her  fearless  state, 

And,  homeless,  to  great  nations  be 
The  home  of  all  that  makes  them  great." 

—Edith  Wharton. 

"The  proposed  tribute  is  part  of  the  debt  of  honor  and  rever- 
ence which  is  due  from  the  whole  world  to  that  most  nobly 
heroic  people  and  the  prince  who  has  shown  himself  worthy 
of  them.  The  tragedy  of  their  great  little  land  is  of  a  pathos 
matchless  in  the  history  of  the  past;  and  in  the  future  when, 
as  we  all  hope,  the  military  spirit  of  Germany  shall  be  brought 
low,  I  believe  the  Germans  themselves  will  share  our  horror  of 
the  ruin  they  have  wrought  among  its  homes  and  shrines. — 
William  Dean  Howells. 

"Belgium  is  rare;  Belgium  is  unique.  Among  men  arises  on 
rare  occasions  a  great  man,  a  man  of  cosmic  import;  among 
nations  on  rare  occasions  arises  a  great  nation,  a  nation  of 
cosmic  import.  Such  a  nation  is  Belgium.  Such  is  the  place 
Belgium  attained  in  a  day  by  one  mad,  magnificent,  heroic  leap 
into  the  azure.  As  long  as  the  world  rolls  and  men  live,  that 
long  will  Belgium  be  remembered.  All  the  human  world  owes, 
and  will  owe,  Belgium  a  debt  of  gratitude  such  as  was  never 
earned  by  any  nation  in  the  history  of  nations.  It  is  a  mag- 
nificent debt,  a  proud  debt  that  all  the  nations  of  men  will 
sacredly  acknowledge." — Jack  London. 

"We  have  experienced  so  many  emotions  in  America  in.  the 
course  of  this  terrible  war  that  it  would  be  difficult,  had  not 
Germany  violated  the  neutrality  of  Belgium,  to  assert  definitely 


134  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

what  has  been  our  dominant  sensation.  But,  as  it  is,  I  think  I 
can  safely  speak  for  my  countrymen,  and  state  that  nothing 
has  so  horrified  us  and  aroused  our  indignation  and  sympathies 
as  the  cruel  fate  of  this  valiant  little  country. 

"Above  all,  no  chapter  of  the  war,  as  yet  presented  to  us, 
has  so  excited  our  admiration  as  well  as  our  profound  respect. 
We  are  the  only  country,  owing  to  our  geographical  position 
as  well  as  to  our  facilities,  that  has  been  able  to  look  at  all 
sides  of  the  European  imbroglio  from  the  beginning;  and 
propaganda  has  made  no  impression  whatever  upon  us.  We 
have  had  the  opportunity  to  make  up  our  minds,  and  wholly 
out  of  order  as  this  would  appear  in  certain  quarters,  we  be- 
lieve ourselves  to  be  quite  equal  to  this  feat  without  exterior 
assistance.  We  know,  among  many  other  things,  that  the 
magnificent  resistance  at  Liege  upset  all  the  long-matured  plans 
of  the  German  War  Office,  and  that  had  Belgium  proved  either 
weak  or  ignoble,  the  history  of  the  war  would  be  very  different 
reading  to-day. 

"I  venture  to  say  that  every  town  in  the  United  States,  big 
and  little,  has  its  Belgian  Relief  Society,  even  if  it  does  not 
spread  beyond  the  dimensions  of  the  weekly  sewing  circle ;  and 
that  the  most  consistent  democrat  in/  the  country  takes  off  his 
hat  to  King  Albert  of  Belgium.  The  Americans  are  always 
alert  to  recognize  a  MAN,  and  are  capable  of  being  quite  in- 
,  different  to  the  niche  presented  to  him  by  destiny.  What  he 
does  in  that  niche  is  the  point.  If  the  result  of  this  upheaval 
is  a  great  European  Republic  (I  refer,  of  course,  to  the  Con- 
tinent) ,  I  feel  positive  that  if  the  people  of  the  United  States 
of  America  were  allowed  to  vote,  the  popular  candidate  would 
be  King  Albert  of  Belgium." — Gertrude  Atherton. 

This  chapter  might,  by  extracts  from  current  American 
literature,  be  almost  indefinitely  prolonged.  But  quite 
sufficient  additional  American  testimony  will  be  found  in 
Chapters  III,  IV,  X  and  XI,  and  indeed,  throughout  the 
book,  to  justify  the  statement  that  everywhere  in  America 
to-day  the  words  "I  am  a  Belgian"  would,  as  in  the  Aus- 
tralian's thrilling  war  poem  (p.  88),  bring  instant  evi- 
dence of  deep  sympathy  and  profound  respect. 


CHAPTEK  VI. 

Is    There    Any    Evidence   Which    Tends   to    Show   Why   the 

Present  Time  Was  Selected  by  Germany  to 

Precipitate  the  War? 

Professor  Usher,  the  author  of  "Pan-Germanism" 
(where  much  interesting  matter  corroborative  of  the  state- 
ments of  Emil  Reich,  as  to  Germany's  megalomania,  may 
be  found  presented  in  a  more  dignified  way),  has  best 
answered  this  question  in  an  article  on  "The  Reasons 
Behind  the  War."  (60) 

In  the  first  place,  Austria  for  centuries  has  dreamed  of 
dominating  southeastern  Europe,  of  ruling  the  Balkans,  of 
possessing  a  seacoast  on  the  Adriatic  and  ^Egean.  Only 
the  control  of  Servia  can  give  her  fully  and  unreservedly 
what  she  desires.  Moreover,  under  Servians  leadership, 
once  she  had  recovered  from  her  great  losses  in  men  and 
resources  during  the  Balkan  wars,  a  strong  Slav  state 
might  have  been  established  in  control  of  all  Austria's 
present  approaches  to  the  Adriatic.  Her  motives  seem 
plain,  and  she  was  in  precisely  the  position,  after  the  mur- 
der of  the  Arch-Duke  Ferdinand,  to  serve  as  a  catVpaw 
for  her  "ally" — and  master.  But  why  did  the  latter  push 
her  relentlessly  into  war  at  this  time,  when  ample  repara- 
tion was  offered  and  further  amends  were  easily  procurable, 
as  the  evidence  shows  beyond  all  question?  The  Anglo- 
Irish  difficulties,  the  Canadian-Hindu  troubles,  the  sensa- 
tional disclosures  in  the  French  Chamber  as  to  the  bad 
condition  of  the  army,  the  alleged  deficiencies  in  the 
French  areoplane  squadrons,  the  only  partial  recovery  of 

(135) 


136  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

Kussia  from  the  effects  of  the  Japanese  war,,  the  exhaustion 
of  the  Balkan  States  themselves  from  their  recent  wars, 
even  the  preoccupation  of  the  United  States  with  troubles 
in  Mexico,  all  seemed  to  preclude  the  chance  of  a  general 
interference. 
Professor  Usher  continues : 

"If  such  interference  took  place  and  a  general  European  war 
resulted,  there  had  not  been  in  twenty  years  anything  like  as 
favorable  an  opportunity  for  the  Triple  Alliance  or  one  as 
disadvantageous  for  the  Triple  Entente.  The  stake  was  so 
immense,  the  results  of  success  would  be  so  stupendous,  so  out 
of  proportion,  in  the  case  of  the  Triple  Alliance,  with  what 
they  might  lose,  that  the  issue  of  war  might  even  be  courted 
with  some  assurance.  .  .  . 

"The  schemes  of  the  Pan-Germanists  indeed  reach  to  the 
creation  of  a  vast  confederation  of  states.  .  .  .  reaching 
'from  the  North  Sea  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  from  the  Baltic  to  the 
Mediterranean/  as  one  of  their  slogans  has  it.  . 

"Of  this  great  scheme  (supposing  it  to  be,  as  many  claim, 
the  veritable  policy  of  the  Triple  Alliance)  the  undisputed 
possession  of  the  Balkans  by  the  Triple  Alliance  is  the  most 
important  single  factor.  .  .  . 

"As  to  a  general  assault  upon  the  Triple  Entente  the  Triple 
Alliance  has  long  seen  two  obvious  methods,  both  in  the  opinion 
of  many,  likely  to  be  successful;  the  one,  a  long  waiting  game 
where  the  rapid  growth  of  the  population  in  Germany,  Austria, 
and  Italy,  and  the  decline  of  the  rate  of  growth  in  France, 
England,  and  Russia,  would  in  time  give  the  Alliance  a  real 
preponderance  in  numbers;  the  other,  a  short  quick  blow  at 
some  moment  when  the  Triple  Alliance  could  bring  all  its 
•strength  to  bear  and  when  the  Triple  Entente  could  not.  The 
former  meant,  not  improbably,  many  years  of  waiting,  and  in 
those  years  much  might  happen. 

"Thoroughly  alive  to  the  situation,  the  Triple  Entente  had 
already  under  execution  the  preliminaries  of  so  vast  an  increase 
of  offensive  force,  and  showed  such  a  determination  to  main- 
tain a  naval  and  military  preponderance,  that  there  would  be 
no  alternative  but  waiting,  once  these  schemes  were  perfected. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  137 

The  French,  and  particularly  the  Russian,  army  was  to  be 
increased,  not  only  in  size,  but  in  efficiency  and  equipment; 
and  an  influential  minority  in  England,  with  apparent  popular 
support,  was  agitating  conscription.  The  English  navy  was  to 
be  much  increased  in  fighting  force  by  manning  at  war  strength 
in  the  near  future  a  much  larger  proportion  of  ships  than  ever 
before.  Chiefest  of  all,  the  Russians  were  building  in  the 
Baltic  a  really  formidable  fleet,  capable  of  contesting  the  Baltic 
with  Germany  and  of  threatening  the  rear  of  the  German  fleet 
in  the  Atlantic  to  such  an  extent  that  united  fleet  action  in  the 
North  Sea  would  become  an  impossibility. 

"If  they  [the  Triple  Alliance]  were  to  fight  at  all,  they  must 
fight  now.  Next  summer  might  be  too  late.  Now  the  actual 
offensive  force  of  their  rivals  was  proportionately  less  than  it 
might  be  again  for  ten  years,  and  their  difficulties  at  home  were 
collectively  and  individually  greater  than  any  of  the  three  has 
seen  for  a  generation. 

"So  far  as  the  fulfillment  of  the  schemes  of  Pan-Germanism 
was  concerned,  the  moment  was  more  than  opportune  and  might 
not  return." 

Professor  Usher  seems  to  me  to  have  sufficiently  an- 
swered Question  VI. 


CHAPTEE  VII. 

What  Are  the  Principles  Represented  by  the  Opposing  Forces 
in  This  War? 

A.  They  are  absolutism  and  militarism  on  the  one  hand 
and  democratic  liberty  and  representative  government  on 
the  other. 

For  a  century  a  transference  of  political  power  from 
military  despots  to  popular  assemblies  has  been  going  on 
in  Western  Europe.  In  Eussia  and  the  Far  East  the  same 
gradual  shift  of  forces  has  been  taking  place.  France  and 
Portugal  are  republics.  England  is  democratic.  Japan 
has  abandoned  feudalism  for  democracy.  China  is  an 
experimental  republic.  Eussia  has  her  Duma.  Servia  has 
fought  for  self-government.  The  people  of  Italy  have 
shown  their  real  sentiments  by  keeping  her  from  fighting 
against  the  Allies.  Belgium  has  a  growing  and  intelligent 
democratic  minority  of  its  population.  At  this  critical  tide 
in  the  affairs  of  the  world  the  inmost  feelings  of  the  peoples 
involved,  the  beliefs  and  aspirations  that  are  a  living  part 
of  their  very  being  are  apt  to  dominate  and  often — though 
I  admit,  not  invariably — determine  their  action. 

What  is  the  alignment? 

On  one  side  Germany — with  whose  ideals  and  purposes 
we  are  familiar — Austria,  not  a  real  nation,  but  an  arti- 
ficial conglomeration  of  heterogeneous  peoples,  the  mere 
tool  of  Germany,  and  Turkey,  now,  as  always,  the  type  of 
a  corrupt  fanatic  Oriental  despotism. 

On  the  other,  France,  England,  Belgium,  Servia, 
Portugal,  Eussia,  Japan. 

(138) 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  139 

And  ranged  on  their  side,  so  far  as  sympathy  goes,  are 
the  democratic  neutral  powers,  Denmark,  Norway,  Hol- 
land, Italy  and  the  United  States. 

The  Outlook,  which  has  admirably  summed  up  the 
foregoing  facts,  says  editorially:  (61) 

"When  in  a  chemical  experiment  certain  molecules  by  a 
natural  attraction  combine,  that  fact  shows  that  they  have 
something  in  common.  When,  in  such  a  war  as  this,  France, 
England,  Belgium,  Portugal,  Japan  and  Russia  combine,  that 
fact  shows  that  these  various  peoples  have  something  in  com- 
mon. We  believe  that  something  in  common  is  a  passionate 
desire  for  democratic  liberty. 

"The  victory  of  Germany  can  be  no  other  than  a  victory  for 
militarism;  the  victory  of  the  Allies  no  other  than  a  victory  for 
permanent  peace.  If  Germany  wins  she  must  maintain  her 
armaments,  if  not  increase  them;  for  power  obtained  by  force 
can  be  maintained  only  by  force.  If  Germany  is  defeated,  a 
diminution  of  her  armaments  as  a  condition  of  peace  may  well 
be  demanded  by  the  Allied  Powers." 

Dr.  Dernburg  has,  with  great  pains,  tried  to  portray  for 
the  benefit  of  Americans,  a  Germany  which  will  excite 
their  admiration.  He  sneers  (62)  at  Chesterton,  Caine, 
Wells,  Doyle  and  Bennett  as  "writers  of  fiction/'  If  any 
one  of  them  ever  wrote  a  story  or  a  novel  less  convincing 
than  the  "official"  and  "unimpeachable"  documents  of  Ger- 
many and  its  representatives  during  this  present  war,  we 
have  failed  to  see  it.  As  a  writer  of  "fiction,"  Doctor 
Dernburg  is  himself  entitled,  in  everything  but  interest 
and  plausibility,  to  rank  with  any  one  of  them.  His  ver- 
sions of  the  Chancellor's  speech  to  the  Eeichstag,  and  of 
Germany's  "solemn  declaration"  to  our  Department  of 
State,  would  alone  suffice  to  class  him  with  Hall  Caine. 
"Germany,"  he  asserts,  "has  no  special  grudge  against  any- 
body/' He  forgets  his  Goethe :  "Em  echter  deutscher  Mann 


140  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

mag  keinen  Franzen  leiden.  Doch  ihre  Weine  trinkt  er 
gern."  "Grudge"  crops  out  of  every  sentence  of  his  paper ; 
grudge  against  England,  grudge  against  France,  grudge 
against  "poor  little"  Belgium  (it  is  Ms  sneer  we  quote), 
and  against  Eussia.  If  the  United  States  escape  such 
obvious  ill  will,  this  may  be  due  to  his  extraordinary  sense 
of  "obligation  as  a  guest."  At  least,  as  we  have  seen,  he 
intimates  that  we  have  von  Bernhardis  in  this  country,  and 
that  he  would  shame  us  by  naming  them  if  he  were  free 
to  do  so ! 

The  Germany  described  by  Doctor  Dernburg  is  one 
which  few  Americans  will  recognize.  Grudgeless,  "fighting 
morally  for  her  freedom  and  her  existence,"  "modest," 
wanting  merely  her  oft-claimed  "place  under  the  sun"; 
"out  for  conquest  on  a  peaceful  line/'  "the  line  where  the 
higher  culture  wins";  a  "democracy,"  "directed  by  the 
most  liberal  ballot  law  that  exists,  even  more  liberal  than 
the  one  in  use  in  the  United  States."  Only  the  last  of 
these  statements  deserves  passing  mention,  and  this  because 
it  might  delude  some  American  who  had  not  time  to  inform 
himself. 

The  "democracy"  so  eulogized  is  no  more  a  democracy 
In  our  sense,  or  in  the  French  sense,  or  in  the  English  sense 
(despite  the  monarchical  form  of  the  British  government) 
than  it  is  a  Court  of  Archangels.  As  Mr.  Mencken  says, 
it  is  not  "a  democracy  in  the  American  sense,  or  anything 
colorably  resembling  it.  It  was  founded  upon  no  romantic 
theory  that  all  men  were  natural  equals."  Nietzsche  re- 
served Brotherhood  for  "shopkeepers,  cows,  women  and 
Englishmen." 

It  is  a  "democracy"  in  which  the  vote  of  one  Prussian 
Junker  is  equal  in  political  effect  to  the  votes  of  many  men 
of  lower  class. 

It  is  a  "democracy"  with  3,000,000  officials  for  14,000,- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  141 

000  electors,  or,  roughly  speaking,  "one  policeman  to  every 
five  adults"  (Price  Collier). 

It  is  a  "democracy"  in  which,  as  Sarolea  said  in  1912, 
every  part  of  the  empire  has  theoretically  a  proportional 
share  in  the  administration,  while  Prussia  really  enjoys  the 
ultimate  political  and  financial  control. 

It  is  a  "democracy"  which  Professor  McElroy  entitles  a 
"half  Slavonic  military  despotism,  calling  its  war  chief  the 
'anointed  of  the  Lord/  and  to  maintain  and  extend  which 
the  Germans  are  giving  their  lives." 

It  is  a  "democracy"  with  an  "Overlord"  who  can  seriously 
say:  (Bremen,  1897) 

"If  we  have  been  able  to  accomplish  what  has  been  accom- 
plished, it  is  due  above  all  things  to  the  fact  that  our  house" 
(the  Hohenzollerns)  "possesses  a  tradition  by  virtue  of  which 
we  consider  that  we  have  been  appointed  by  God  to  preserve  and 
direct  for  their  own  welfare  the  people  over  whom  He  has  given 
us  power." 

And  still  later,  only  four  years  ago:  (1910,  Konigsberg) 

"It  was  in  this  spot  that  my  grandfather,  in  his  own  right 
placed  the  royal  crown  of  Prussia  upon  his  head,  insisting  once 
again  that  it  was  bestowed  upon  him  by  the  grace  of  God  alone, 
and  not  by  parliaments,  and  meetings,  and  decisions  of  the 
people.  He  thus  regarded  himself  as  the  chosen  instrument  of 
Heaven,  and  as  such  carried  out  his  duties  as  a  ruler  and  lord. 
I  consider  myself  such  an  instrument  of  Heaven,  and  shall  go 
my  way  without  regard  to  the  views  and  opinions  of  the  day." 

Prince  Henry  of  Prussia,  the  Kaiser's  brother,  declared 
that  he  was  actuated  by  one  single  motive:  "A  desire  to 
proclaim  to  the  nations  the  gospel  of  Your  Majesty's  sacred 
person,  and  to  preach  that  gospel  alike  to  those  who  will 
listen  and  those  who  will  not." 


142  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

This  German  "democracy"  is  blessed  with  a  Parliament, 
concerning  which  so  well  informed  a  writer  as  Collier  can 
say:  "Why  should  the  press  or  society  take  this  assembly 
very  seriously,  when  as  the  most  important  measure  of 
which  they  are  capable  they  can  vote  to  have  themselves 
dismissed  by  declining  to  pass  supply  bills,  and  when,  as 
has  happened  four  times  in  their  history,  they  return 
chastened,  tame,  and  amenable  to  the  wishes  of  their 
master?"  Mr.  Collier  affirms  that  after  forty  odd  years 
the  Germans  are  still  without  real  representative  govern- 
ment. 

It  is  a  "democracy"  in  which  the  battle  cry  is  "World 
power  or  perish" ;  in  which  there  is  an  Overlord  who  says : 
"Only  one  is  master  of  this  country.  That  is  I.  Who 
opposes  me  I  shall  crush  to  pieces" ;  in  which  for  a  genera- 
tion the  toast  of  the  ruling  class  has  been  "Der  Tag,"  "The 
Day,"  when  they  should  be  let  loose  by  their  masters  to 
work  havoc  and  destruction ;  the  day  for  which  the  masses, 
the  people,  the  "electors,"  had  been  more  or  less  unwillingly 
preparing,  and  on  which,  as  a  reward  for  their  toil  and 
energy  and  self-sacrifice,  they  were  allowed  to  become 
"cannon  fodder"  for  the  glory  of  the  War  Lord. 

This  question  of  the  democracy  of  Germany  has  a  por- 
tentous significance  from  another  viewpoint. 

As  to  one  of  the  theoretical  results  of  the  war,  by  many 
still  widely  believed  in  and  hoped  for,  viz.,  that  after  the 
German  people  realized  the  failure  of  the  initial  campaign 
and  came  to  see  the  inner  causes  and  springs  of  the  hopeless 
war  in  which  they  are  engaged,  they  would  wrest  authority 
from  the  hands  of  those  who  had  misused  it  and  found  a 
New  Germany,  an  American  paper  (63)  has  admirably 
expressed  the  unfortunate  truth.  Its  editorial  historical 
summary  is  so  enlightening  at  this  juncture  that  I  quote 
it  almost  in  full,  although  I  am  not  in  accord  as  to  one 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  143 

point,  viz.,  the  "absolute  unit/'  of  the  German  people  'see 
pp.  461-71). 

"One  of  the  earliest  predictions  made  concerning  the  war  was 
that  it  would  result  in  a  revolution  in  Germany;  that  imperial- 
ism, militarism  and  autocracy  would  be  submerged  beneath  the 
tides  of  an  awakened  democracy. 

"It  was  a  plausible  theory,  and  still  has  its  hopeful  support- 
ers. They  will  be  likely  to  reject  the  opinion  expressed  in  the 
Pall  Matt  Gazette: 

"  'The  New  York  Times  speculates  on  the  possibility  of  a 
G'erman  revolution  under  the  impetus  of  disaster.  Prophecy  is 
hazardous,  but  nothing  in  German  history  discloses  either  the 
initiative  or  the  capacity  to  bring  such  a  movement  to  fruition. 
Germany  has  always  had  her  political  shape  and  her  political 
thought  imposed  upon  her  by  strong  wills  and  strong  hands.' 

"Many  who  are  familiar  with  world  history  will  resent  so 
harsh  a  sneer.  They  know  that  the  very  cradle  of  human  lib- 
erty was  in  the  historic  land  of  Germany.  .  .  . 

"It  would  seem  the  limit  of  absurdity  and  injustice  to  say 
that  the  German  people  of  modern  times  are  incapable  of  free- 
ing themselves  from  autocracy. 

"But  the  singular  fact  is  that  history  declares  the  theory,  up 
to  this  time,  to  be  true.  For  three  centuries  the  peoples  of  all 
the  earth — except  the  Germans — have  been  struggling  toward 
democracy.  Literally,  every  nation  worthy  of  the  name — ex- 
cepting Germany — has  had  its  revolts  and  revolutions,  its  over- 
turning of  dynasties  and  tyrannical  governments. 

The  German  people  alone  have  been  satisfied.  They  have 
warred  with  everybody  but  their  rulers.  Emperors,  kings,  petty 
princes  and  grand  dukes  by  the  score,  by  the  hundred,  have 
maintained  their  sway  over  contented  populations.  The  house 
of  Hohenzollern,  now  ruling  the  empire,  has  reigned  over  Bran- 
denburg and  Prussia  in  unbroken  line  for  exactly  500  years. 
There  is  not  another  royal  family,  probably,  which  can  boast 
such  uninterrupted  domination.  .  .  . 

"Glancing  at  the  record  of  the  last  300  years,  we  find  that 
every  other  country  in  Europe,  all  of  America  and  half  of  Asia 
have  had  their  great,  impulsive  movements  toward  democracy, 
but  that  in  Germany  the  liberal  institutions  which  do  exist 


144  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  "WAR 

have  been  handed  down  by  an  autocracy  which  thereby  has 
perpetuated  its  own  power. 

'There  has  never  been  in  that  country  a  successful  revolution, 
and  no  apparent  desire  for  one.  The  history  of  Germany  is  a 
history  of  great  sovereigns,  great  generals,  great  writers  and 
philosophers;  but  there  is  in  it  no  great  liberator.  The  birth- 
place of  religious  and  intellectual  freedom,  the  cradle  of  the 
race  that  has  carried  democracy  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  it  has 
itself  never  known  political  freedom.  It  can  commemorate  the 
glories  of  a  Leipsic  and  a  Sadowa,  but  not  of  a  Lexington  or  a 
Yorktown. 

"The  power  of  the  Hohenzollern  dynasty  was  really  founded 
by  the  GTeat  Elector,  Frederick  William  of  Brandenburg  ( 1640- 
1688),  whose  son  Frederick  was  first  King  of  Prussia  (1701- 
1713),  and  was  succeeded  by  Frederick  William  I  (1713-1740). 
Let  us  see  what  Europe  was  doing  while  the  first  of  these 
sovereigns  was  creating  a  State,  the  second  feebly  living  out  his 
term  and  the  third  was  winning  immortality  by  collecting  regi- 
ments of  giant  grenadiers. 

"In  1640  Portugal  threw  off  the  yoke  of  Spain,  which  it  had 
worn  for  sixty  years.  Two  years  later  came  the  great  civil  war 
in  England,  which  was  to  last  until,  seven  years  later,  a 
despotic  king  was  put  to  death  by  the  people  whose  rights  he 
had  invaded. 

"In  1688  the  British  spirit  of  freedom,  inherited  from  Teu- 
tonic ancestors,  drove  the  last  of  the  wayward  Stuarts  from  the 
throne.  It  was  this  revolution  which  reduced  the  power  of  the 
State  in  behalf  of  individual  liberty  and  self-government,  and 
not  the  French  revolution,  which  extended  the  power  of  the 
State  by  destroying  aristocratic  privileges,  that  was  the  true 
forerunner  of  the  American  revolution.  But  it  had  no  echo, 
then  or  at  any  other  time,  in  Germany. 

"Passing  over  one  of  Poland's  many  revolts — in  1706  she 
forced  her  Saxon  king  to  abdicate — we  glance  at  the  reign  of 
Frederick  the  Great  (1740-1786).  Russia  had  a  dynastic  revo- 
lution, the  reactionary  Peter  III  being  dethroned  by  Catherine 
II,  whose  vigorous  sway  introduced  Western  civilization,  pro- 
moted commerce,  founded  schools  and  granted  religious  liberty. 
In  1772  the  people  of  Sweden,  led  by  Gustavus  III,  crushed  the 
power  of  the  arrogant  nobles  and  established  constitutionalism. 

"The  enlightened  despotism  of  Frederick  lifted  Prussia  to  the 


.1  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  145 

rank  of  the  first  military  power  in  Europe.  He  performed 
prodigies  for  the  material  and  intellectual  advancement  of  the 
kingdom;  but  its  people  gave  no  response  to  the  epoch-making 
summons  of  the  American  revolution.  In  the  year  he  died  the 
patient  Dutch  dethroned  an  aristocratic  monarch. 

"The  reigns  of  Frederick  William  II,  III  and  IV  covered 
three-quarters  of  a  century,  1786-1861.  Yet  only  once  during 
this,  perhaps  the  most  restless  period  in  the  history  of  politics, 
did  the  people  of  Prussia  and  the  other  German  States  reveal 
signs  of  discontent  with  the  rigorous  rule  imposed  upon  them, 

"In  1787  Belgium  freed  herself  from  Austria  and  set  up  a 
republic,  although  three  years  later  she  accepted  the  old  system, 
modified  by  a  constitution.  A  little  later  came  the  cataclysm 
of  the  French  revolution;  and  while  it  caused  some  aspirations 
in  Germany  toward  freedom,  its  excesses  were  so  alarming  that 
German  armies  were  sent  to  support  the  doomed  autocracy  in 
France.  , 

"Napoleon  simply  used  the  German  States  as  counters  in  his 
titanic  game  of  empire.  He  shuffled  them  as  though  they  had 
been  cards;  squeezed  the  300  of  them  into  38;  bestowed  crowns 
as  though  they  were  tips.  The  very  brutality  of  his  iron  sway 
resulted  finally  in  arousing  a  martial  spirit,  and  it  was  Prus- 
sian valor  that  at  the  last  rose  up  and  smote  his  empire  to  dust. 

"Yet  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  German  people  were  still  faith- 
ful to  their  royal  leaders.  In  1795  Poland  had  risen  under 
Kosciusko,  and  the  Netherlands  had  established  the  Batavian 
republic,  which  lasted  as  long  as  that  of  France.  Two  years 
later  Switzerland  had  also  followed  the  inspiration  of  the  great 
revolution.  In  1809  Sweden  deposed  an  unsatisfactory  mon- 
arch; in  1813  the  Netherlands  expelled  the  French  and  restored 
the  house  of  Orange,  and  in  1814  Napoleon  was  overthrown;  but 
during  all  this  time  the  inhabitants  of  the  German  States  re- 
mained unmoved. 

"It  was  a  time  of  tremendous  literary  activity;  but  among 
all  the  great  writers — Goethe,  Kant,  Schiller,  Fichte,  Richter 
and  a  score  of  others — though  the  world  was  racked  with  the 
birth-pangs  of  democracy,  there  was  none  to  inspire  his  country- 
men with  aspirations  toward  political  liberty.  Some  of  the 
German  sovereigns1  were  absolutists,  some  granted  constitu- 
tions; but  the  mass  of  the  people  remained  indifferent.  The 
few  who  declaimed  about  freedom  did  nothing  else  to  achieve  it, 

10 


146  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"Between  1822  and  1830  Greece  revived  the  glories  of  her 
ancient  valor  and  won  her  independence  from  the  Turk.  The 
last-named  year  saw  the  Poles  drive  out  the  Russians,  Belgium 
win  her  independence  from  Holland  and  France  dismiss  the  last 
of  the  Bourbons.  Spain  indulged  in  a  civil  war  in  1834,  and 
two  years  later  forced  her  sovereign  to  swear  to  maintain  a 
violated  constitution.  In  1843  Greece  extorted  a  constitution 
likewise  from  her  Bavarian  king. 

The  stormiest  year  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  1848,  with 
revolutions  in  France,  Italy,  Hungary  and  elsewhere.  Then, 
for  the  first  and  only  time,  the  German  people  revealed  a  vigor- 
ous sense  of  political  independence.  While  France  was  de- 
throning Louis  Philippe  and  setting  up  the  second  republic, 
Bavaria  forced  the  abdication  of  her  king,  Baden  produced  a 
feeble  revolt  and  Berlin  a  few  days  of  barricades  in  the  streets. 
The  end  of  it  all  was  the  exile  of  the  liberal  leaders — some  of 
whom  became  great  Americans — and  the  establishment  in  Prus- 
sia and  other  States  of  constitutions  which  were  merely  tinged 
with  democracy. 

"A  little  later  began  the  era  of  Bismarck,  creator  of  the 
German  empire.  Its  rise  has  been  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
world ;  but  no  one,  least  of  all  intelligent  Germans  themselves, 
will  pretend  thai  it  is  democratic. 

"In  1852  France  returned  to  the  imperial  idea.  In  1860 
Garibaldi  began  the  struggle  which  unified  Italy.  In  1862 
Greece  deposed  her  Bavarian  sovereign  and  gave  the  crown  to 
a  Danish  prince.  In  1868  Japan  abolished  feudalism  and 
adopted  Western  ideas.  Between  1868  and  1874  the  Spaniards 
changed  their  government  three  times.  And  1871  saw  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  French  republic,  that  has  proved  its  vigor 
against  the  vast  armies  of  imperial  Germany. 

The  twentieth  century,  young  as  it  is,  has  seen  movements 
toward  democracy  in  the  Balkan  States,  in  Russia,  in  Portugal, 
in  Turkey  and  in  China,  two  of  these  having  become  republics. 
But  throughout  all  this  period  the  German  people  have  re- 
mained the  willing  subjects  of  a  highly  efficient  but  uncompro- 
mising autocracy.  .  .  . 

"Germany  takes  her  greatest  pride  to-day,  not  in  the  valor 
of  her  troops,  but  in  the  absolute  unity  of  her  people.  There 
is  not  one  of  them  who  by  a  word  or  breath  will  admit  that  a 
single  act  of  the  autocracy,  from  Austria's  criminal  ultimatum 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  147 

to  the  extortion  of  blackmail  from  starving  Belgium,  has  failed 
in  the  remotest  degree  in  justice. 

"From  the  standpoint  of  patriotism  this  is  admirable;  from 
the  standpoint  of  civilization  it  is  ominous.  Three-fourths  of 
the  world  condemns  the  conflict  as  a  needless  and  brutal  crime 
of  misgovernment;  yet  in  the  whole  German  people  there  is  no 
voice  raised  in  behalf  of  humanity  or  in  condemnation  of  the 
false  and  barbarous  philosophy  that  exalts  militarism  and  pro- 
vokes aggressive  conquest. 

"There  could  hardly  be  more  striking  evidences  of  that  habit 
of  docility  which  yields  veneration  to  autocratic  power  and 
sacrifices  liberty  to  attain  a  machine-made  efficiency. 

"The  world's  debt  to  Germany  is  vast;  to  her  it  owes  music, 
philosophy,  religious  and  intellectual  emancipation.  But  as  a 
nation  she  remains  insensible  to  political  freedom. 

"In  this  day  of  democracy  the  absolute  surrender  of  indi- 
vidualism to  an  autocratic  State,  so  that  among  a  whole  people 
there  is  not  a  single  variation  of  thought  or  utterance  upon  the 
mightiest  and  most  complex  problem  that  ever  confronted  the 
world,  is  a  painful  spectacle,  from  which  humanity  will  derive 
no  inspiration  and  to  which  it  will  pay  no  admiring  tribute." 

The  following  acute  summary  (64)  of  the  German 
views,  ideals,  ambitions  and  purposes  of  to-day  sets  forth 
at  the  same  time  the  over-weening  confidence  and  prepos- 
terous self-satisfaction  of  the  German  leaders : 

"The  objects  of  Prussia's  ambition — an  ambition  shared  by 
every  anemic  bespectacled  clerk  and  able-bodied  tram  conductor 
in  the  Fatherland — are  'cultural/  and  the  means  of  achieving 
them  are  heavy  guns,  quick-firers,  and  millions  of  ruthless  war- 
riors. Real  German  culture  in  all  its  manifestations — scien- 
tific, artistic,  philosophical,  musical,  commercial,  and  military, 
accepts  and  champions  the  new  principle  and  the  fresh  ideas 
which  are  to  regenerate  the  effete  social  organisms  of  to-day. 
According  to  the  theory  underlying  this  grandiose  national  en- 
terprise, the  forces  of  Christianity  are  spent.  New  ichor  for 
the  dry  veins  of  decrepit  Europe  is  stored  up  in  German  phil- 
osophy and  poetry.  Mediaeval  art  has  exhausted  the  traditional 
forms,  but  Teutonism  is  ready  to  furnish  it  with  new  ones. 
Music  is  almost  a  creation  of  German  genius.  Commerce  was 


148  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

stagnating  in  the  ruts  of  old-world  use  and  wont  until  German 
enterprise  created  new  markets  for  it,  and  infused  a  new  spirit 
into  its  trading  community.  Applied  science  owes  more  to 
German  research  and  ingenuity  than  to  the  efforts  of  all  the 
world  besides.  And  the  race  thus  highly  gifted  is  deserving 
of  a  field  worthy  of  its  world-regenerating  labors.  At  present 
it  is  cooped  up  in  Central  Europe  with  an  absurdly  small 
coast-line.  Its  surplus  population  has,  for  lack  of  colonies,  to 
be  dumped  down  on  foreign  shores,  where  it  is>lost  forever  to 
the  Fatherland.  For  this  degrading  position,  which  can  no 
longer  be  tolerated,  there  is  but  one  remedy:  expansion.  But 
to  be  effectual  it  must  be  expansion  combined  with  Germani- 
zation.  And  the  only  means  of  accomplishing  this  end  is  for 
Germany  to  hack  her  way  through  the  decrepit  ethnic  masses 
that  obstruct  her  path  and  to  impose  her  higher  civilization  on 
the  natives.  Poland  was  the  first  vile  body  on  which  this  ex- 
periment was  tried,  and  it  has  been  found,  and  authoritatively 
announced,  that  the  Slavs  are  but  ethnic  manure,  useful  to  fer- 
tilize the  seed-fields  of  Teutonic  culture,  but  good  for  little 
else.  The  Latin  races,  too,  are  degenerates  who  live  on  memo- 
ries and  thrive  on  tolerance.  Beef-eating  Britons  are  the  in- 
carnation of  base  hypocrisy  and  crass  self-indulgence,  and  their 
empire,  like  a  hollow  tree,  still  stands  only  because  no  storm 
has  yet  assailed  it.  To  set  youthful,  healthy,  idealistic  Ger- 
many in  the  high  places  now  occupied  by  those  inert  masses 
that  once  were  progressive  nations,  is  but  to  adjust  obsolete 
conditions  to  the  pressing  requirements  of  the  present  time — 
to  execute  the  wise  decrees  of  a  just  God.  And  in  order  to 
bring  this  task  to  a  satisfactory  issue,  militarism  must  reign 
as  the  paramount  power  before  culture  can  ascend  the  throne. 
Militarism  is  a  necessity,  and  unreasoning  obedience  the  condi- 
tion of  its  success." 

In  a  most  excellent  article  Dr.  Ellis  Oberholtzer,  of 
Philadelphia  (65),  reviews  a  portion  of  the  same  field, 
and  shows  the  absolute  domination  of  Germany  by  Prus- 
sia, the  Hohenzollerns,  the  aristocracy  and  the  multi-mil- 
lionaires. He  calls  attention  to  the  Dreiklassen  system,  by 
which  all  the  voters  in  a  district  are  divided  into  three 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  149. 

classes  according  to  their  taxable  wealth,  and  goes  on: 

"Thus  in  the  first  class  the  very  wealthy  elected  one-third 
of  the  members  of  a  kind  of  electoral  college,  those  in  the  second 
class,  the  less  wealthy,  elected  a  third,  while  the  masses  of  the 
people,  bundled  into  a  class  by  themselves,  chose  another 
third.  .  .  . 

"In  this  system  no  change  has  been  made,  though  the  consti- 
tution was  promulgated  more  than  sixty  years  ago.  In  Essen, 
when  I  lived  in  Germany,  Herr  Krupp,  the  gunmaker,  and 
Bismarck,  who  owned  some  property  in  that  town,  formed  one 
class,  a  score  or  more  lesser  magnates  another  class.  Their 
influence  and  power  were  as  two  to  one  against  the  thousands 
of  workingmen  and  small  tradesmen  thrown  together  into  the 
third  class." 

He  says  that  there  are  districts  in  East  Prussia  in  which 
95  or  even  99  per  cent,  of  the  people  cast  but  one-third  of 
the  votes  for  a  member  of  the  Prussian  Diet.  He  brings 
the  matter  home  to  us  by  saying  that  it  is  as  if  Pennsyl- 
vania had  a  king,  "by  the  grace  of  God,"  who  was  also 
Emperor  of  the  United  States.  He  would  choose  his  own 
ministers  from  a  land-holding  aristocracy.  The  Senate  or 
upper  house  of  legislature  would  be  a  House  of  Lords  with 
the  selection  of  whom  the  people  would  have  nothing  to  do. 
The  House  of  Eepresentatives  would  be  made  up  of  mem- 
bers chosen  from  time  to  time  by  the  rich  men  in  each 
district  of  the  State.  The  government  could  not  be  changed 
except  by  consent  of  the  king  and  of  an  hereditary  noble 
hierarchy  surrounding  the  throne.  "In  this,"  he  says  "do 
popular  government  and  the  parliamentary  system  consist 
in  Prussia,  which  is  two-thirds  of  the  German  Empire  in 
population  and  three-thirds  in  the  domination  and  control 
of  German  affairs."  He  speaks  of  the  absence  of  anything 
corresponding  to  what  we  know  as  "freedom  of  speech"  or 
"liberty  of  the  press,"  and  continues: 


150  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"But  an  American  or  English  editor  could  not  patiently  write 
for  newspapers  held  in  such  restraint  and  exerting  so  little  in- 
fluence upon  public  opinion.  It  is  necessary  for  the  publisher 
to  carry  a  copy  of  every  issue  to  the  police  station  before  the 
presses  run  off  the  edition  and  to  print  in  plain  view  the  name 
of  a  verantwortliclie  redacteur,  or  responsible,  answerable 
editor.  This  man,  in  tho  case  of  some  of  the  Socialist  papers, 
has  been  hired  for  the  use.  He  goes  to  jail;  another  who  takes 
his  place  follows  him  into  durance  vile,  while  the  actual  editor 
still  continues  daily  to  take  his  flings  at  the  government.  And 
not  all  the  editors  who  have  been  imprisoned  in  these  forty 
years  have  been  Socialists.  The  more  moderate  radicals  have 
sometimes  been  visited  by  the  police  to  be  withdrawn  for  a  time 
from  the  sunshine. 

"What  makes  the  way  of  the  journalist  particularly  difficult, 
although  the  general  libel  laws  are  harsh,  is  the  unverletzliclw, 
or  inviolable  character  of  the  Kaiser,  and  he  is  holy  twice  over, 
once  because  he  is  the  German  Emperor  and  again  because  he  is 
the  King  of  Prussia.  He  is  so  much  in  the  German  scheme  of 
government  by  force  of  law,  and  by  his  assumption  of  preroga- 
tives (through  the  exercise  of  many  of  the  chancellor's  powers 
since  the  dismissal  of  Bismarck),  and  his  general  meddling  in 
all  manner  of  questions  by  his  pronunciamentos  which  he 
issues  as  a  vicegerent  of  God,  that  free  political  discussion  in 
the  press  is  out  of  the  question.  A  great  excellency  of  the 
English  democracy  is  found  in  the  open  and  unceasing  debate  of 
the  merits  of  public  men.  The  one  great  public  man  in  Ger- 
many is  removed  from  the  province  of  debate,  unless  it  should 
be  in  the  line  of  adulation. 

"The  press  has  never  reached  any  degree  of  respectable  public 
influence  in  Germany.  When  it  finally  escaped  actual  daily 
censorship  it  found  itself  at  the  mercy  of  Bismarck,  who  used 
a  so-called  Guelph  fund,  belonging  to  the  Duke  of  Cumberland, 
in  the  Prussian  Treasury.  He  seized  the  income  to  bribe  the 
press.  With  advertisements  and  subsidies,  by  withholding  in- 
formation from  one  paper  and  giving  it  to  another,  by  prose- 
cuting an  editor  who  attacked  him  as  chancellor  and  sparing 
another  who  lashed  the  enemies  of  Prussian  policy,  by  feeding 
the  'reptiles,'  as  men  called  them,  because  they  crawled  at  his 
feet,  he  made  the  freedom  of  the  press  the  travesty  it  has  al- 
ways been.  The  newspaper  as  an  organ  of  public  opinion  has  not 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  151 

succeeded  in  raising  itself  to  a  much  greater  height  since  the 
passing  of  Bismarck's  extraordinary  regime. 

"If  the  laws  relating  to  Use  majeste  fail,  the  police  authori- 
ties can  turn  to  the  famous  clause  in  the  penal  code  relating 
to  Grower  Unfug,  the  committing  of  a  gross  nuisance.  This 
term  covers  a  multitude  of  sins — the  objectionable  yelping  of 
dogs,  the  indecent  public  exposure  of  the  human  person  and, 
by  test  in  the  courts  of  justice,  the  misbehavior  of  newspaper 
editors,  touching  subjects  of  government.  So  much  for  the 
liberty  of  the  press  in  Germany. 

"But  the  seat  and  center  of  the  monarch's  power  is  in  the 
army.  He  is  its  absolute  head.  Under  its  influence  at  one  time 
or  another  comes  every  male  German  fit  to  carry  a  gun.  The 
recruit  is  put  under  drill  sergeants,  always  chosen  from  the 
noble  junker  or  monarchical  classes,  and  trained  for  a  term  of 
years  to  military  efficiency  and  implicit  obedience  of  his  com- 
manders. These  soldiers  are  set  down  among  the  people  in 
fortresses  and  barracks  in  every  part  of  the  empire.  Not  a 
town  or  agricultural  district  which  is  not  under  the  constant 
surveillance  of  the  army;  not  a  road  in  the  remotest  parts  of 
the  empire  which  is  untraversed  by  the  troops,  or  a  gawky 
peasant  who  is  permitted  to  forget  that  war  any  day  may  be- 
come the  business  of  his  life.  Here  William  II,  imperator  et 
rex,  is  omnipotent. 

"The  Socialists  appeared  in  strength  soon  after  the  Empire 
was  formed.  'We  will  give  them  all  the  Socialism  they  want/ 
said  Bismarck,  and  the  present  Emperor  has  continued  the 
policy.  Rules  and  regulations  cover  the  movements  of  the  in- 
dividual from  the  cradle  to  the  grave  in  every  relationship  of 
life.  Great  bureaus  have  been  established  to  govern,  cajole, 
protect  and  sustain  the  population. 

"Hundredsi  of  thousands  of  men,  organized  with  almost  sol- 
dierly order,  stand  under  noble  personages,  named  by  the  Kaiser 
and  the  princes  around  him,  to  the  great  all-comprehending 
civil  service.  If  there  were  'free  institutions'  anywhere  in  this 
German  land  they  would  sink  under  the  weight  of  the  universal 
military  organization  and  the  bureaucracy  created  by  State  So- 
cialism. 

"Can  it  be  supposed  that  thia  great  system  will  soon  be 
changed  ?  Can  we  conceive  of  the  people  rising  up  to  change  it  ? 
Is  there  desire  to  sweep  it  away  ?  I  have  never  heard  a  German 


152  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

outside  of  the  ranks  of  militant  Socialism  express  a  wish  for 
anything  better  than  what  he  has.  The  typical  old-line  Prus- 
sian, who  thanks  God  that  he  is  not  as  other  men,  has  become 
the  typical  German.  He  would  have  more  seaports,  more  colo- 
nies and  the  like  of  that,  but  as  for  being  rid  of  compulsory 
military  service,  or  a  king,  or  a  bureaucratic  system  it  is  not 
much  on  his  mind.  'Your  America  is  corrupt,'  he  will  tell  you. 
'Of  course,  you  do  not  have  an  army.  Yours  is  a  new  country, 
without  enemies'.  Democracy  has  failed  wherever  it  has  been 
tried.' 

"This  is  heard  with  more  or  less  patience.  What  is  depress- 
ing is  to  see  the  entire  vaunted  university  system  arrayed  on 
the  side  of  the  Prussianized  military  Germany.  There  was  a 
day  in  1837,  when  seven  men — Gervinus,  Bahlmann,  the  two 
brothers  Grimm  among  the  number — walked  out  of  Gottingen 
for  their  political  opinions;  another  day,  in  1848,  when  Pro- 
fessor Kinkel,  at  Bonn,  shouldered  a  musket,  led  his  students 
out  to  fight  for  republican  institutions',  and  rotted  in  a  prison 
at  Spandau,  until  one  of  those  students,  young  Carl  Schurz,  by 
bribing  a  keeper,  lowered  the  poet  and  sage  on  a  rope  and  hur- 
ried him  in  the  night  to  a  schooner  at  Rostock,  by  which  means 
they  together  escaped  to  England. 

"But  the  boldest  man  in  our  day  has  been  Von  Seydel  at 
Munich,  the  Calhoun  of  Germany,  who  contended  that  the 
Empire  under  the  Constitution  is  a  Staatenbund  instead  of  a 
Bundesstaat,  and  that  Bavaria  can  secede  from  the  Union,  in 
the  manner  of  South  Carolina,  whenever  she  has  a  mind  to  do 
so.  About  all  of  this  nobody  cares  a  rap.  He  would  not  have 
carried  a  gun  to  make  so  much  come  to  pass.  Every  country 
university  professor  has  before  his  eyes  the  blandishments  of 
a  well-rewarded  post  in  Berlin,  and  this*  keeps-  him  soundly 
Hohenzollern  in  his  sympathies.  Treitschke,  Wagner  and  Dam- 
bach  were,  in  my  day  as  a  student  at  Berlin,  the  types  of  men 
representing  German  scholarship  in  the  political  and  economic 
sciences.  They  were  Bismarck's  own  body  servants. 

"There  is  a  great  potential  rumbling  of  unrest,  but  it  has  re- 
mained as  pointless  as  it  is  strong,  because  of  the  rigor  of  the 
political  system  and  a  military  domination  of  the  people  of  a 
character  never  before  seen  in  any  country  under  the  sun. 
There  have  been  the  loudest  demands  in  recent  years  in  Prussia 
for  direct  equal  manhood  suffrage.  The  demonstrations  have 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  153 

been  as  violent  as  the  laws  will  allow.  Some  Social  Democrats 
have  found  their  way  into  the  Landtag,  in  spite  of  the  seem- 
ingly impossible  obstacles  to  be  overcome,  in  expression  of  the 
popular  dissatisfaction,  but  the  Government  has  yielded  not  one 
jot  or  tittle  to  the  spirit  of  democratic  progress. 

"In  1890,  at  the  end  of  the  Bismarck  regime,  the  Social  Demo- 
crats polled  1,427,298  votes  (nearly  20  out  of  100)  and  they 
elected  35  members  of  the  Reichstag.  Such  advancement  has 
there  been  that  in  1907  they  held  53  seats,  and  five  years  later, 
in  1912,  110,  a  total  since  somewhat  increased  in  bye-elections. 
Out  of  more  than  12,000,000  voters  a  third,  or  over  4,000,000, 
were  Social  Democrats.  The  Radicals  polled  1,500,000  votes 
and  the  National  Liberals  1,600,000,  a  total  for  the  left,  or 
opposition  parties,  of  approximately  7,500,000,  for  which  by  a 
just  apportionment,  they  would  have  260  instead  of  less  than 
200  seats  in  a  house  of  397  members. 

"This  Social  Democratic  uprising  means  something,  but  the 
Government  is  so  amazingly  constituted  that  the  party  is  with- 
out any  power  to  influence  public  policy.  And  now  the  Kaiser 
and  his  military  men  raise  a  cry  of  invasion  from  Russia,  re- 
kindle the  fires  of  hate  for  England  and  France  and  these  So- 
cialists (with  few  exceptions)  throw  off  their  hats  and  go  off 
to  war  behind  the  Prussian  'vons'  and  'zus,'  who  direct  the 
greatest  military  autocracy  which  mankind  has  ever  seen. 

"Revolution  in  Germany,  of  which  a  good  deal  is  said,  is 
probably  as  far  distant  as  ever;  though  possibly  the  way  may 
be  prepared  for  changes  if  the  Allies  shall  win  in  this  war. 
One  of  the  most  important  works  on  the  subject  of  government 
is  President  A.  Lawrence  Lowell's  "Governments  and  Parties 
in  Continental  Europe."  He  is  of  the  opinion  that  there  is  no 
real  wish  for  popular  government  in  Germany,  unless  it  be  in 
the  South,  where  the  principles  of  the  French  Revolution  made 
themselves  felt  in  the  18th  century,  and  no  genius  to  institute 
it,  conduct  it  and  enjoy  it.  Just  this  lesson  did  the  young  lib- 
eral enthusiast,  Carl  Schurz,  learn  in  1848.  'The  people,'  says 
he  in  his  Reminiscences,  'although  highly  developed  in  science, 
philosophy,  literature  and  art,  had  always  lived  under  a  severe 
guardianship  in  all  political  matters.  They  had  never  been  out 
of  leading  strings.  They  had  never  received  or  known  the 
teachings  which  spring  from  the  feeling  of  responsibility  in 
free  political  action.  The  affairs  of  Government  lay  outside 


154  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

of  the  customs  and  habits  of  their  lives.'  (Reminiscences,  vol- 
ume I,  page  124.)  May  not  these  judgments  apply  just  as 
truly  to  the  Germans  of  this  present  day? 

"It  may  be  a  fact,  as  another  respectable  writer  has  said,  that 
they  are  discontented  because  they  have  'outgrown  their  insti- 
tutions'; that  the  aim  of  a  great  body  of  them  is  'unfettered 
representative  government.'  I,  for  one,  basing  my  opinion  on 
observations  during  a  long  residence  in  their  midst,  cannot 
think  that  they  have  very  much  less  political  liberty  than  they 
deserve,  or  are  fitted  to  exercise.  That  people  which  needs  what 
is  better  usually  finds  the  way  to  attain  it.  The  proof  or  dis- 
proof of  our  theories  may  be  at  hand,  possibly,  in  the  course 
of,  or  at  the  end  of  this  great  present  war.  .  .  . 

"These  then  are  the  'free  institution  si*  of  Prussia  and  of  all 
Germany.  They  belong  to  that  period  in  England  which  pre- 
ceded the  Revolution  of  1688,  that  period  in  France  preceding 
the  fall  of  the  Bastille.  The  German  would  fain  believe  that  in 
these  few  past  months  he  has  extended  the  sphere  of  his  influ- 
ence into  Belgium  and  a  portion  of  France.  He  had  before 
proven  his  character  as  a  ruler  of  captured  lands  in  the  un- 
happy provinces  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  England  and  the  rest 
of  the  world  will  fairly  conclude  that  it  is  his  design  to  impose 
these  sentiments  and  systems  upon  other  parts  of  the  earth's 
surface,  if  he  shall  be  the  victor  in  this  war.  The  German 
frau  will  throw  up  her  hands  several  times  in  a  day  and  ex- 
claim, 'Gott  bewahre!'  It  is  'Gott  bewahre'  now  for  the  non- 
Prussian  world  and  the  great  cause  of  popular  government. 
Shall  democracy  live  on  this  planet,  after  two  or  three  cen- 
turies of  growth  and  development,  or  shall  it  be  written  by  the 
historian  of  the  future  that  in  the  first  years  of  the  twentieth 
century  it  went  down  before  kaisers  and  princes  and  praetors, 
directing  obedient  legions  armed  to  the  teeth  ?" 

With  this  convincing  and  enlightening  testimony  as  to 
the  real  principles  represented  by  Germany  in  this  war,  and 
this  final  reply  to  Doctor  Dernburg*s  false  description  of 
Germany's  "democracy"  and  of  her  ballot-law,  "more 
liberal  than  the  one  in  use  in  the  United  States/'  I  must 
close  this  chapter.  I  wish  I  could  get  every  intelligent 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OP  THE  WAR  155 

German-American  in  this  country  to  read  it,  not,  of  course, 
for  what  I  have  written,  but  for  what  I  have  quoted.  I 
think  many  of  them,  whatever  their  views  as  to  the  relative 
merits  of  the  two  systems  of  government,  would  find,  as  I 
do,  something  humorous  in  calling  "democratic"  a  system 
under  which  civilians  could  be  arrested  by  an  army  officer 
for  "intending  to  laugh."  And  yet  that  occurred  as 
recently  as  December,  1913,  and  was  proved  at  the  trial 
resulting  from  the  shameful,  and  now  historic,  Zabern 
occurrence,  when,  with  other  outrages,  a  helpless  cripple 
was  stabbed  in  the  back.  The  Court,  acting  in  this  "democ- 
racy," acquitted  the  colonel  in  command  "beeause^he  did 
not  know  that  he  had  acted  illegally."  (66) 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 

In  Addition  to  the  Evidence  Already  Presented  as  to  the 
Mental  Attitude  of  the  Average  German  Toward  His  Own 
Race  and  Toward  Other  European  Races,  Are  There  Any 
Facts  Tending  to  Show  His  Real  Attitude  Toward 
America? 

If  in  answering  this  I  begin  by  coming  back  again  to 
Bernhardi  and  Treitschke,  it  is  because  I  believe  it  has  been 
shown  that,  in  spite  of  eleventh-hour  denials,  they  truly 
represent  the  Germany  of  1914 — the  Germany  of  this  war. 
How  much  of  the  mistaken  "devotion"  of  the  German 
nation  at  this  time  is  due  to  their  teachings  and  to  those  of 
their  class  it  is  impossible  to  state  dogmatically.  But  that 
they  have  greatly  influenced  their  compatriots  there  can  be 
no  doubt. 

Let  us  see  what  these  "Pan  Germanists"  have  to  say  to 
their  fellow-countrymen  about  America.  Bernhardi  says 
(67)  that  in  our  efforts  at  The  Hague  Congresses  and,  more 
recently  in  our  attempts  to  conclude  treaties  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  Arbitration  Courts,  we  have  not  pacific  ideals 
as  the  real  motive  of  our  actions,  but  "usually  employ  the 
need  of  peace  as  a  cloak  under  which  to  promote"  our  own 
political  aims.  He  goes  on : 

"We  can  hardly  assume  that  a  real  love  of  peace  prompts 
these  efforts.  This  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  precisely  those 
Powers  which,  as1  the  weaker,  are  exposed  to  aggression,  and 
therefore  were  in  the  greatest  need  of  international  protection, 
have  been  completely  passed  over  in  the  American  proposals  for 
Arbitration  Courts.  It  must  consequently  be  assumed  that 
very  matter-of-fact  political  motives  led  the  Americans,  with 

(We) 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  157 

their  commercial  instinctsi,  to  take  such  steps,  and  induced 
perfidious  Albion  to  accede  to  the  proposals.  We  may  suppose 
that  England  intended  to  protect  her  rear  in  event  of  a  war 
with  Germany,  but  that  America  wished  to  have  a  free  hand 
in  order  to  follow  her  policy  of  sovereignty  in  Central  America 
without  hindrance,  and  to  carry  out  her  plans  regarding  the 
Panama  Canal  in  the  exclusive  interests  of  America.  Both 
countries  certainly  entertained  the  hope  of  gaining  advantage 
over  the  other  signatory  of  the  treaty,  and  of  winning  the  lion's 
share  for  themselves.  Theorists  and  fanatics  imagine  that  they 
see  in  the  efforts  of  President  Taft  a  great  step  forward  on  the 
path  to  perpetual  peace,  and  enthusiastically  agree  with  him. 
Even  the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairsi  in  England,  with  well- 
affected  idealism,  termed  the  procedure  of  the  United  States  an 
era  in  the  history  of  mankind."  . 

"The  United  States  of  America,  e.  g.,  in  June,  1911,  cham- 
pioned the  ideas  of  universal  peace  in  order  to  be  able  to  devote 
their  undisturbed  attention  to  money-making  and  the  enjoy- 
ment of  wealth,  and  to  save  the  three  hundred  million  dollars 
which  they  spend  on  their  army  and  navy."  .... 

"In  America,  Elihu  Root,  formerly  Secretary  of  State,  de- 
clared in  1908  that  the  High  Court  of  International  Justice 
established  by  the  second  Hague  Conference  would  be  able  to 
pronounce  definite  and  binding  decisions  by  virtue  of  the  pres- 
sure brought  to  bear  by  public  opinion.  The  present  leaders 
of  the  American  peace  movement  seem  to  share  this  idea.  With 
a  childlike  self-consciousness,  they  appear  to  believe  that  public 
opinion  must  represent  the  view  which  the  American  plutocrats 
think  most  profitable  to  themselves."  . 

"While,  on  the  one  side,  she  [America]  insists  on  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  on  the  other  she  stretches  out  her  own  arms  towards 
Asia  and  Africa,  in  order  to  find  bases  for  her  fleets.  The 
United  States  aims  at  the  economic  and,  where  possible,  the 
political  command  of  the  American  continent,  and  at  naval 
supremacy  in  the  Pacific." 

So  much  for  Bernhardi. 
Treitschke  says:  (68) 


158  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"To  civilization  at  large,  the  Anglicising  of  the  German- 
Americans  means  a  heavy  loss.  .  .  .  Among  Germans  there 
can  no  longer  be  any  question  that  the  civilization  of  mankind 
(Gesittung  der  Menscheit)  suffers  every  time  a  German  is 
transformed  into  a  Yankee." 

Delbriick  says :  (69) 

"It  seems  extremely  questionable  that,  under  the  prevailing 
loose  political  conditions  and  extraordinarily  easy  changes 
from  one  party  to  another,  the  United  States  should  be  in  a  po- 
sition to  attain  to  a  permanent  military  status  at  all.  Their 
momentary  proud  position  need  deceive  no  one.  The  Americana 
have  not  yet  stood  any  really  severe  test." 

No  wonder  that  the  Bidders  and  Miinsterbergs  and  Hil- 
prechts  and  Jastrows  seek  to  belittle  Bernhardi  and 
Treitschke  and  their  teachings  as  a  preliminary  to  the  con- 
ciliation of  America.  But  I  fear  that  the  transformation 
of  the  representative  of  "Kultur"  into  the  despised  Yankee 
takes  place  much  less  frequently  than  we  had  supposed. 

The  reason  it  does  not  occur  oftener  is  not  far  to  seek, 
if  one  recognizes  that  our  German- Americans  are  still  un- 
der the  influence  of  the  "Fatherland." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  German  and  American  polit- 
ical ideals  are  absolutely  divergent.  They  have  already 
come  into  conflict  over  South  America,  the  Panama  Canal 
and  the  Philippines.  Calwer,  a  German  socialist,  says  that 
preliminary  to  a  socialistic  economic  organization  of  the 
world,  "Capitalism  must  first  bring  the  world  under  sub- 
jection," and  adds: 

"It  follows  that  capital — including  German  capital  as  well- 
must  first  go  forth  and  subdue  the  world  with  the  means  and 
weapons  which  are  at  its  disposal,"  i.  e.,  with  fire  and  sword. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  159 

The  same  sort  of  thing  crops  out  wherever  their  bureau- 
crats write.  Herr  Schlettwein,  a  Government  Colonist  and 
an  expert  on  colonial  matters,  when  asked  to  instruct  the 
Reichstag  on  the  principles  of  colonization,  said : 

"In  colonial  politics  we  stand  at  the  parting  of  the  ways — 
on  the  one  side  healthy  egoism  ...  on  the  other  exag- 
gerated humanitarianism.  The  Herreros  must  be  compelled  to 
workt  and  to  work  without  compensation,  and  in  return  for  their 
food  only.  Forced  labor  for  years  is  only  a  just  punishment, 
and  at  the  same  time  it  is  the  best  method  of  training  them." 

How  long  would  an  American  governmental  employe 
remain  in  public  life  after  expressing  that  sentiment  to 
Congress  ? 

The  German  ideal  is  far  remote  from  American  ideals. 

Mr.  E.  S.  Martin  says:  (70) 

"It  is  good  in  Krupps  and  chemistry,  in  manufacture,  in 
trade,  in  civic  government,  in  the  regulation  of  life  for  the  pro- 
motion of  average  comfort.  It  is  bad  in  art.  It  is  not  notable 
in  the  higher  forms  of  literature.  And  as  to  the  great  point  of 
making  nobler  types  of  men — has  it  done  it?  The  Germans 
are  notably  efficient,  but  are  they  creative?  are  they  inventive? 
and  are  they  nobler  than  other  men?  They  have  told  us  that 
democratic  France  was  decadent;  that  democratic  England  was 
a  pretense  and  an  empty  shell;  that  Russia  was  barbarous. 
They  said  nothing  about  Belgium.  There  ought  to  be  a  Nobel 
prize  for  nobility.  If  there  were,  would  it  go  to  Germany? 
One  sees  in  Germany  immense  efficiency,  courage,  aggressiveness, 
capacity  to  suffer,  but  where,  so  far,  has  she  been  noble?  In 
Belgium?  At  Louvain?  At  Rheims? 

"Her  specialty  is  fighting,  but  man  for  man  she  can't  handle 
the  Belgians  or  the  new  French,  and  her  superiority  to  the 
Russians  is*  dubious,  while  as  for  the  English,  they  are  but  a 
handful  so  far  in  this  war,  but  it  has  been  a  handful  for 
Germany. 

"No;  get  them  out  of  their  shops  and  laboratories  and  the 


160  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

current  Germans  don't  seeni  to  be  of  an  egregious  nobility.  The 
Belgians  can  give  them  odds  in  it,  and  they  seem  to  have  noth- 
ing on  the  lately  decadent  French.  They  must  be  learning  a 
wonderful  lot  about  the  qualities  of  other  people,  and  perhaps 
they  are  revising  their  self-esteem." 

They  learn  slowly.  Months  of  war  and  the  all  but  uni- 
versal condemnation  of  the  civilized  world  have  not  shaken 
their  confidence  in  their  governmental  methods,  nor  their 
admiration  for  themselves.  In  December  Dr.  Franz  Junge 
wrote:  (71) 

"But  it  is  a  reflection  upon  the  intelligence  of  trained  ob- 
servers, native  as  well  as  foreign,  to  spea.k  seriously  of  the 
effectiveness  of  popular  government  in  practice.  Nor  is  it  con- 
sistent with  the  rule  of  reason,  which  governs  the  destinies  of 
the  United  States,  to  introduce  moral  considerations  of  abstract 
justice  into  the  settling  of  international  disputes,  with  which 
the  waging  of  war  has  never  had  anything  to  do.  .  .  . 

"Now,  if  the  absence  of  adequate  rule  in  America  offers  so 
feeble  a  guarantee  against  the  complete  reversal  of  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  government — from  individualism  to  col- 
lectivism, and  from  democracy  to  plutocracy — not  to  speak  of 
corruption  in  its  various  forms;  if  the  enlightened  people  of 
America,  working  as  they  do  under  the  most  favorable  auspices 
of  heredity  and  environment,  with  all  their  political  liberties, 
have  been  unable  to  preserve  their  economic  independence,  how 
can  it  be  surprising  that  the  German  people  hesitate  to  commit 
their  country  to  the  same  policy  of  laissez  fairef  .  .  . 

"Why,  after  all,  should  the  German  people  abandon  their 
political  system,  which  has  proved  successful  to  the  Common- 
wealth, and  adopt  American  institutions,  which  are  notorious 
for  the  contrast  or  discrepancy  between  recognized  political 
principles  and  actual  political  life?" 

And  (Ibid)  Dr.  Ervin  Acel  continues: 

"I  have  kept  myself  from  a  discussion  of  the  ethical  questions 
involved  in  the  stand  taken  by  America.  Germany  did  right 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  161 

or  did  wrong;  it  does  not  matter  which.  But,  however  that 
may  be,  the  very  interests  of  the  United  States  require  a  vic- 
torious Germany  and  a  humbled  Japan  and  England.  There- 
fore the  American  policy  is  a  mistake,  in  view  of  the  future, 
and  a  blunder  in  policy  is  more  unpardonable  than  crime. 

"As  to  Europe,  every  century  has  its  caryatid  which  carries 
the  weight  of  its  culture.  There  was  a  time  when  the  world's 
culture  found  its  highest  expression  among  the  Greeks,  among 
the  Romans,  among  the  French.  Now  we  see  this  high-water 
mark  of  learning  among  the  Germans.  Her  philosophers,  engi- 
neers, scholars,  merchants,  all  emarche  en  la  tete  de  la  civilisa- 
tion': they  lead  the  army  of  civilization." 

Such  colossal  conceit  would  be  unworthy  even  of  ridicule 
were  it  not  that  both  articles  unintentionally,  and  there- 
fere  the  more  significantly,  betray  a  conception  of  inter- 
national morals  which,  if  carried  into  effect  in  personal 
activities,  would  disqualify  both  writers  for  ordinary  deal- 
ings with,  their  fellow  citizens,  at  least  in  this  country. 

The  Outlook  deals  with  the  matter  editorially  as  follows : 

"A  passage  from  each  of  these  two  articles  will  suffice  to 
indicate  to  our  readers  how  marked  is  the  difference  between 
their  point  of  view  and  the  point  of  view  of  The  Out- 
look.  .  .  .  The  Outlook  believes  that  it  does  matter  a  great 
deal  whether  a  country  does  right  or  does  wrong,  and  that  it  is 
in  accord  with  the  rule  of  reason  to  introduce  moral  considera- 
tions into  the  settling  of  international  disputes." 

An  article  in  a  recent  number  of  a  magazine  of  high 
standing  (72),  should  be  called  to  the  attention  of  Amer- 
icans. There  are  many  living  who  could  prove  or  disprove 
its  statements,  for  which,  especially  as  it  is  signed  by  a 
nom^de-plume,  I  can  assume  no  responsibility.  They  are, 
however,  so  in  accord  with  much  of  the  recent  German  arid 
German-American  behavior  that  they  seem  more  credible 
11 


162  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

to-day  than  ever  before.    The  article  begins  with  the  asser- 
tion that: 

''Germany  has  consistently  followed  a  twofold  policy  toward 
the  United  States.  Always  reckoning  with  the  possibility  of  a 
collision  with  England,  she  has  endeavoured  to  be  on  good  terms 
with  the  United  States,  counting  upon  their  support  in  case  of  a 
great  war.  At  the  same  time,  German  statesmen  have  seen  in 
the  Great  Republic  an  economic  and  political  danger  and,  while 
ostensibly  maintaining  excellent  relations  with  the  United 
States,  they  have  stealthily  endeavoured  to  weaken  them  by 
various  ways,  and  especially  by  creating  enmity  between  them 
and  England.  In  leading  German  circles  it  has  been  an  article 
of  faith  that  the  United  States  and  England  are  natural 
enemies;  that  both  countries  bitterly  remember  the  War  of 
Independence  and  the  quarrels  which  succeeded  it.  It  has  been 
an  article  of  faith  in  Germany  that  Canada  was  coveted  by  all 
Americans;  that  the  existence  of  that  great  English  Dominion 
in  North  America  was  an  ever-present  cause  of  friction 
between  the  two  Anglo-Saxon  States;  that  the  Americans 
would  take  Canada  as  soon  as  England  was  involved  in  a  really 
serious  war." 

It  continues  by  citing  Prince  Bismarck's  views  as  to  the 
Monroe  Doctrine,  views  which  there  is  much  reason  to 
believe  are  those  of  official  Germany  to-day.  They  appeared 
in  the  Hamburger  NachricMen  on  February  9,  1896 : 

"Some  German  newspapers  continue  discussing  the  so-called 
'Monroe  Doctrine/  in  consequence  of  the  events  which  have 
taken  place  in  South  America.  We  axe  of  opinion  that  that 
doctrine,  and  the  way  in  which  it  is  now  advanced  by  the 
American  Republic,  is  an  incredible  impertinence  (eine  unglau- 
lliche  Unverschamtheit)  towards  the  rest  of  the  world.  The 
Monroe  Doctrine  is  merely  an  act  of  violence,  based  upon  great 
strength,  towards  all  American  States  and  towards  those  Euro- 
pean States  which  possess  interests  in  America." 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  163 

The  author  reviews  the  Samoan  incident,  and  says  of 
the  Manila  Bay  controversy : 

« 

"During  the  Spanish- American  War  Germany  endeavoured  to 
acquire  the  Philippines.  While  other  countries  had  sent  only 
a  few  ships  to  the  Philippine  Islands,  Germany  had,  without 
any  obvious  reason,  despatched  there  her  Pacific  Squadron — a 
force  equal  to  that  commanded  by  Admiral  Dewey.  The  Ger- 
man Admiral  Diedrichs  endeavoured  to  foil  Admiral  Dewey's 
operations,  and  the  relations  between  the  German  and  Amer- 
ican fleets  became  so  strained  that  a  battle  between  the  two 
was  avoided  only  by  the  intervention  of  the  English  Commander, 
who  backed  up  his  American  colleague."  (p.  180) 

He  continues: 

"In  1907,  Mr.  Emil  Witte,  a  former  Press  attache  at  the 
German  Embassy  in  Washington,  published  at  Leipzig  a  book 
on  his  experiences  at  the  Washington  Embassy.  For  some 
reason  or  other,  that  book,  which  contains  disclosures  m'ost 
damaging  to  the  German  Government,  has  remained  practically 
unknown.  It  is  so  scarce  a  book  that  it  seems  possible  that 
the  German  Government  bought  up  and  destroyed  all  the  copies 
it  could  lay  hands  on. 

The  following  extracts  from  Mr.  Witte's  disclosures  throw 
a  powerful  light  upon  Germany's  diplomatic  methods,  and  upon 
her  American  policy.  Mr.  Witte  was,  in  spring  1898,  one  of 
the  editors  of  the  Deutsche  Zeitung  of  Vienna.  At  that  time 
the  Spanish- American  War  broke  out,  and  practically  the  whole 
of  the  German  and  Austrian  Press  took  the  part  of  Spain  and 
violently  attacked  the  United  States  in  accordance  with  official 
directions."  (See  pp.  216-17-18) 

He  follows  with  a  number  of  extracts  from  Mr.  Witte's 
book,  "Experiences  at  a  German  Embassy:  Ten  Years  of 
German-American  Diplomacy,"  by  Emil  Witte,  late  Coun- 
cillor of  Legation,  Leipzig,  1907: 


164  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"The  public  learns  from  these  pages  for  the  first  time  the 
truth,  and  the  whole  truth,  about  German- American  relations, 
the  true  state  of  which  has  been  disguised  and  misrepresented 
on  both  sides  of  the  ocean  by  a  powerful  and  corrupt 
Press.  .  .  ." 

"'These  Americans  are,  after  all,  incredibly  simple.  They 
swallow  any  bait  greedily  as  long  as  it  is  sufficiently  sugared 
and  placed  before  them  with  a  friendly  smile.'  I  heard  this 
phrase  frequently  from  an  intimate  friend  of  Herr  von  Holleben, 
the  German  Ambassador  'at  Washington,  at  the  time  when  I 
had  the  honour  to  be  attached  to  the  German  Embassy  at  Wash- 
ington in  order  to  attend  to  Press  matters.  That  phrase  is 
characteristic  of  the  view  which  prevailed  among  German  dip- 
lomats towards  the  statesmen  of  the  New  World.  These  views 
have  led  to  very  gross  errors.  After  a  number  of  serious  inci- 
dents, such  as  the  Dewey-Diedrichs  episode  in  the  Bay  of 
Manila,  the  unfortunate  Samoa  affair,  the  Coghlan  affair,  and 
the  Venezuela  imbroglio,  the  diplomats  at  Berlin  suddenly 
remembered  the  old  historic  friendship  which  united  Prussia 
and  the  United  States  since  the  time  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
and  they  assured  the  Americans  that  the  great  Republic  pos- 
sessed no  more  faithful  and  sincere  friend  than  the  German 
Emperor.  In  order  to  give  a  practical  demonstration  of  that 
historical  friendship  to  the  world  in  general  and  to  the  United 
States  in  particular,  the  American  journey  of  Prince  Henry 
was  announced.  .  .  ." 

"The  Prince  arrived,  and  he  convinced  himself  and  was  able 
to  report  to  his  Imperial  brother  that  he  was  in  a  country 
where  one-third  of  the  population  was  of  German  birth  or  of 
German  descent,  and  was  firmly  resolved  to  stand  faithfully 
at  Germany's  side  under  all  circumstances.  He  convinced  him- 
self of  the  truth  of  the  statement,  which  Dr.  von  Holleben  had 
made  to  a  journalist  at  a  time  when  German- American  relations 
were  in  a  critical  state,  that  a  war  between  Germany  and  the 
United  States  would  assume  the  character  of  a  civil 
utivr."  .  .  . 

"Dr.  A.  von  Mumm  admitted  to  me  at  Washington  that 
Germany  was  responsible  for  the  unhappy  Dewey-Diedrichs 
incident  at  Manila."  .  . 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  165 

"The  anti-German  attitude  of  the  American  Press  which  was 
noticeable  at  the  time  when  I  entered  upon  my  duties  ( January, 
1899)  was  not  unjustified.  I  was  selected  as  Press  attache 
to  the  German  Emahssy  in  America,  to  make  up  for  the  sins 
which  the  German  Press  had  committed  in  its  blind  desire  to 
please  the  men  at  the  Wilhelmstrasse."  .  .  . 

"When  I  entered  upon  my  duties,  I  received  the  general 
instruction  to  do  everything  in  my  power  to  silence  the  journals 
hostile  to  Germany,  and  to  convert  them  from  determined 
enemies  of  Germany  into  friends  and  admirers  of  the  Emperor. 
Besides,  it  was  my  duty  to  create  the  belief  in  American  public 
opinion  that  the  true  enemy  of  the  United  States  was  not 
Germany,  but  England.  .  .  .  Thus  I  began  my  work." 

Further  extracts  are  of  great  interest  at  this  moment  to 
every  American  who  is  striving  intelligently  to  reach  a  fair 
conclusion  as  to  the  genuine  German  attitude  toward  our 
country. 

"The  German-American  Ambassador  played  a  very  delicate 
and  dangerous  part  in  the  German- American  movement.  Mr. 
John  J.  Lentz,  of  Columbus,  Ohio,  a  member  of  Congress,  told 
me :  'Please  tell  the  Ambassador  to  keep  the  German- American 
movement  progressing  with  energy.9  The  Ambassador  replied, 
when  I  gave  him  the  message,  that  'it  was  not  unexpected.'  I 
had  met  Mr.  Lentz  previously  in  the  house  of  Herr  von  Stern- 
burg,  and  I  met  him  frequently  at  the  Embassy.  As  he  was 
a  member  of  the  Committee  for  Military  Affairs,  and  was  there- 
fore acquainted  with  the  most  secret  information,  his  inter- 
course with  us  was  not  approved  of  by  American  people."  .  .  . 

"The  vast  majority  of  the  German  newspapers  appearing 
in  the  United  States  could  not  conveniently  exist  if  they  did 
not  save  the  wages  of  journalists  and  compositors  by  relying 
upon  the  factories  which  produce  stereotyped  matter.  The 
producers  of  the  stereotyped  matter  which  is  sent  out  to  the 
German-American  papers  can  make  a  living  only  by  copying 
matter  which  has  appeared  in  the  German  and  Austrian 
journals  and  periodicals.  They  reprint  part  of  their  contents, 
cast  plates,  and  sell  these  at  a  very  low  price  to  the  German- 
American  Press.  The  New  Yorker  Stoats  Zeitung  asserts  that 


166  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

it  is  the  only  German  newspaper  in  America  which  pays  its 
contributors  for  belletristical  contributions,  but  its  payments 
are  more  than  modest.  The  very  difficult  struggle  for  exist- 
ence forces  the  German- American  newspapers  to  play  a  very 
humiliating  part."  .  .  . 

"Without  doubting  for  a  moment  the  often-asserted  loyalty 
to  the  United  States  expressed  by  the  members  of  the  German 
Soldiers'  Societies  in  the  United  States*,  and  without  dwelling 
on  the  reasons  why  they  have  been  officially  distinguished  by  the 
German  Government  by  sending  them  flags,  decorations, 
gracious  letters,  etc.,  it  must  be  frankly  stated  that  the  rela- 
tions between  official  Germany  and  the  emigrant  subjects  of  the 
Emperor,  whether  they  have  become  citizens  of  the  Republic 
or  not,  may  lead  to  serious  complications  between  Germany  and 
the  United  States,  <md  to  unforeseen,  difficulties  which  at  any 
moment  may  involve  both  Powers"  .  .  . 

"In  handing  over  the  first  colours  bestowed  on  behalf  of  the 
Emperor  William  II,  to  the  Military  Society  of  Chicago,  the 
German  Ambassador,  Dr.  von  Holleben,  said:  'GTeetings  from 
the  German  Emperor!  That  is  the  cry  with  which  I  come 
before  you.  His  Majesty,  my  most  gracious  master,  has  ordered 
me  to  hand  to  you  to-day  the  colour  which  has  been  desired 
by  you  so  strongly  and  for  so  long.  The  colour  is  a  token  of 
His  Majesty's  graciousness  and  of  the  approval  with  which 
the  German  Emperor  remembers  in  love  and  friendship  those 
who  have  served  in  the  German  army  and  navy,  and  those 
who  have  fought  and  bled  for  the  Fatherland.  This  colour  is 
to  be  the  symbol  of  German  faithfulness,  German  manliness, 
and  German  military  honour.  His  Majesty  asks  you  to  accept 
the  colour  as  a  token  of  that  unity  which  should  prevail  among 
all  German  soldiers,  to  act  also  abroad  in  accordance  with  the 
sentiments  of  German  loyalty  and  German  sense  of  duty,  and  to 
take  for  your  maxim  the  word  of  that  great  German,  Bismarck: 
'We  Germans  fear  God,  but  nothing  else  in  the  world!'  Now  let 
the  colour  flutter  in  the  wind.  In  this  moment  of  enthusiasm, 
let  us  all  sound  the  cry  that  is  now  on  the  lips  of  every  old 
German  soldier:  'His  Majesty,  German  Emperor,  William  II, 
Hurrah !  Hurrah !  Hurrah ! ' 

"The  wooing  of  the  formerly  despised  German  renegades  in 
the  United  States  by  the  German  Empire,  and  its  official  repre- 
sentatives in  America,  since  the  Spanish- American  War,  must 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  167 

seem  all  the  stranger  to  the  spectators,  and  especially  to  Anglo- 
Americans,  as  that  policy  is  directly  opposed  to  the  policy  which 
the  German  Government  pursues  in  Germany  towards  men  of 
non-German  language.  What  would  happen  if  the  King  of 
Denmark,  or  the  President  of  the  French  Republic,  should  send 
to  the  former's  citizens  of  Denmark  in  Schleswig-Holstein,  and 
of  France  in  Alsace-Lorraine  through  their  official  representa- 
tives, colours  with  inciting  inscriptions,  or  if  Danes  or  French- 
men dwelling  in  Germany,  and  remembering  regretfully  the 
old  regime,  should  send  across  the  German  frontier  telegrams 
assuring  their  former  rulers  of  their  undying  faithfulness  and 
loyalty?  What  would  happen  if  the  Poles  living  in  Berlin 
should  march  in  procession  through  the  streets  carrying 
national  banners  and  the  portraits  of  their  national  heroes, 
singing  Polish  national  songs?  In  America  dwell  also  Danes, 
Frenchmen,  and  Poles,  who  are  good  citizens  of  the  Republic, 
who  thirst  for  vengeance  against  the  German  Empire,  and  who 
do  not  fail  at  every  opportunity  to  point  out  how  strangely 
Germany's  policy  in  America  contrasts  with  Germany's  policy 
in  Germany. 

"One  cannot  be  surprised  if  the  Government  at  Washington 
is  becoming  somewhat  nervous  and  believes  that  possibly  there 
is  a  German  league  which,  in  the  event  of  a  war  between  Ger- 
many and  the  United  States,  would  aim  at  creating  an  inde- 
pendent federation  of  the  largely  German  States  of  the  Middle 
West  of  America,  involving  the  United  States  in  a  Civil  War. 
Herr  von  Holleben  has  pointed  out  that  possibility  by  telling 
a  lady  interviewer,  Mrs.  Grace  A.  Downing,  laying  stress  upon 
his  words,  that  a  war  between  the  United  States  and  Germany 
would  bear  the  character  of  a  Civil  War." 

I  repeat  that,  so  far  as  actual  facts  are  concerned,  I  can 
neither  corroborate  nor  disprove  the  statements  of  Herr 
Witte. 

It  is  interesting,  however,  in  explanation  of  the  present 
efficiency  of  the  German- American  "News  Bureau"  here, 
to  note  the  years  of  experience  they  must  have  had,  accord- 
ing to  Herr  Witte,  in  supplying  "the  vast  majority  of  Ger- 


168  A'  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

man  newspapers  appearing  in  the  United  States  with 
'stereotyped  matter/"  (See  pp.  193-94.) 

For  fuller  evidence  as  to  the  relations  between  Germany 
and  America  see  Chapters  IX  and  X. 

Curiously  enough,  the  fundamental  idea  of  our  American 
republic,  the  idea  for  which  the  War  of  the  Eevolution  was 
fought,  the  idea  for  the  preservation  of  which  to-day 
Americans  would  unhesitatingly  lay  down  their  lives,  is 
known  to  political  philosophers  and  historians  as  "the 
Teutonic  idea." 

It  is  the  irreconcilable  conflict  between  that  idea  and 
the  mediaeval  ideas  of  a  people  willing  to  be  governed  by 
a  Hohenzollern  that  prevents  the  more  frequent  meta- 
morphosis of  a  German  into  a  "Yankee.*' 

Professor  McElroy  has  shown  (73)  that  the  "Teutonic 
idea" — the  idea  of  representative  government — dating  back 
to  the  earliest  days  of  European  history,  gradually  over- 
whelmed on  the  Continent  by  the  Roman  idea  (of  govern- 
ment from  above),  except  in  the  highlands  of  Switzerland 
and  the  lowlands  of  Holland,  survived  in  the  British  Isles. 
It  was  kept  alive  at  Kunnymede,  and  by  Simon  de  Mont- 
fort's  parliament  and  against  it,  he  says,  "The  despotic 
Tudors,  the  treacherous  Stuarts  and  the  dull  Hanoverians 
struggled  in  vain." 

It  throve  in  the  American  Colonies,  and  the  American 
Eevolution  started  it  upon  a  new  and  glorious  career. 
Almost  at  once  the  representative  idea  was  restored  in 
England,  and  in  France  emerged,  "after  centuries  of  com- 
plete obliteration,  in  a  revolutionary  movement  that  shook 
Europe  from  end  to  end." 

Professor  McElroy  continues: 

"It  has  since  spread  rapidly.     Wherever  the  British  flag  has 
appeared  the  'Teutonic  idea'  has  been  planted  and  its  roots  care- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  169 

fully  nourished.  It  is  a  plant  of  slow  growth ;  but  it  is  worth 
the  trouble  of  careful  cultivation.  No  man  can  deny  the  fact 
that,  with  all  the  faults  of  administration,  and  they  are  many 
and  grave,  often  written  in  letters  of  blood,  the  flag  of  England 
and  that  of  her  own  flesh  and  blood,  the  United  States,  have 
been  followed  always  by  the  idea  and  practice  of  representative 
government.  We  may  criticise  the  Boer  War;  but  we  know 
that  as  soon  as  the  Boers  were  subdued  they  were  told  to 
govern  themselves.  Men  may  question  the  propriety  of  Amer- 
ican intervention  in  Cuba;  but  no  one  can  deny  that  we  volun- 
tarily stood  aside,  after  gaining  full  possession  of  the  island, 
and  invited  her  people  to  select  representatives  and  manage 
their  own  affairs.  In  the  elaboration  of  this  idea  one  need 
not  argue;  one  need  only  invite  attention  to  the  facts  which 
are  patent  to  all  men.  Whatever  we  may  think  of  England, 
therefore,  we  know  that  the  great  Germanic  idea  of  government 
'of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people'  follows  her  flag. 
"But  what  of  Germany  under  the  hegemony  of  Prussia? 
Prussia  has  been  throughout  her  history,  as  her  greatest  pub- 
licist, Professor  Hans  Delbriick,  has  phrased  it,  a  Kriegsstaat. 
Her  history  is  a  military  history.  In  reading  it  we  miss  the 
story  of  the  glorious  conflicts  for  the  people's  right  to  a  share 
in  the  government.  There  are  no  Runnymede  barons,  no  Simon 
de  Montforts,  no  Oliver  Cromwells,  no  Abraham  Lincolns,  in 
the  history  of  Prussia.  Slowly,  but  with  a  grim  and  terrible 
certainty,  the  iron  hand  of  the  Prussian  War  Lord  has  brought 
the  German  nation  to  exactly  the  position  to  which  King 
G'eorge  III  attempted  to  bring  England  and  the  American 
Colonies.  In  Germany  the  Teutonic  idea  is  dead.  A  mixed  race, 
more  Slavonic  than  Teutonic,  the  Prussian,  has  deprived  the 
German  people  of  their  birthright.  There,  as  Professor  Cramb 
strikingly  phrases  it,  'Corsica  .  .  .  has  conquered  Galilee.' 
The  ideals  of  Prussia  remain  to-day  just  what  they  were 
in  the  days  of  the  Great  Elector — ideals  of  absolute  monarchy — 
and  the  German  Empire  has  accepted  them.  'The  German 
people/  wrote  Charles  Sarolea  in  1912,  'are  governed  more  com- 
pletely from  Berlin  and  Potsdam  than  the  French  were  gov- 
erned from  Paris  and  Versailles.  In  theory,  every  part  of  the 
Empire  may  have  a  proportional  share  in  the  administration 
of  the  country;  in  reality,  Prussia  has  the  ultimate  political 
and  financial  control.'  And  it  is  to  maintain  and  extend  this 


170  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

half-Slavonic    military    despotism    calling    its    war    chief    the 
'anointed  of  the  Lord'  that  the  Germans  are  giving  their  lives." 

"The  furor  Teutonicus  of  which  we  have  had  warning  from 
Professor  Richard  has  all  its  cylinders  in  action.  'The  Ger- 
mans/ said  Dr.  Richard,  in  the  Outlook,  'are  determined  to  win 
at  any  cost,  and  after  their  victory  to  leave  their  enemies  in 
such  shape  that  they  will  never  be  able  to  disturb  the  peace 
again.'  That  expresses  the  underlying  purpose  of  this  war — 
the  annihilation  of  all  obstacles  to  Germany's  supremacy  in 
Europe."  (74) 

For  still  further  citations  illustrating  the  real  feeling  of 
Germany  to-day,  and  her  genuine  attitude  toward  America 
in  times  past  I  would  ask  the  reader  to  turn  to  pp.  216-19 
to  learn  their  views  in  1898  when  we  were  at  war  ourselves, 
and  to  p.  24:2  to  acquaint  himself  with  their  sentiments 
toward  us  now  that  we  are  neutral.  A  summary  of  some 
of  their  current  journalistic  expressions  will  also  be  found 
on  p.  421, 


CHAPTER  IX. 

What  is  the  Attitude  of  German-Americans  Toward  This  War 
and  Toward  the  Principles  Involved? 

This  has  been  and  is  one  of  the  great  surprises  of  the  war 
to  most  Americans.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  we  value 
our  German-American  citizens,  and  thought  that  in  times 
of  stress  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  they  would  demon- 
strate that  they  were  as  democratic  and  as  truly  American 
as  any  of  us.  It  was  quite  common  to  hear  the  expression 
from  Americans  that  this  was  a  "Prussian  war,"  a  "Kaiser's 
war,"  "a  War  Lord's  fight,"  and  that  the  "German  people" 
had  our  sympathies,  though  we  hoped  Germany  would  lose. 
In  Mr.  Fraley's  brochure,  already  quoted  from,  he  says 
eloquently : 

"Oh,  Great  People  of  South  and  Middle  Germany;  brave, 
kindly,  lovers  of  the  peaceful  arts*,  lovers  of  liberty;  you,  who 
as  you  march,  are  singing  of  homes  in  Schwabenland  and  Bayer- 
land,  and  where  the  grape  blooms  on  the  Rhine;  how  long  will 
you  sacrifice  not  only  your  blood  and  treasure,  but  your  sacred 
honor,  to  uphold  this  spirit  of  inexorable  militarism,  foisted 
upon  you  under  the  pretense  that  through  it  your  dear  Father- 
land may  be  at  rest,  but  whose  real  purpose  is  that  a  Prussian* 
shall  write  himself  Imperator  et  Rex?" 

If  we  thought  this  of  portions  of  the  German  nation 
itself,  it  may  be  understood  how  much  more  confident  we 
were  as  to  the  sentiments  of  the  Germans  who  had  become 
fpart  of  our  own  family.  But  we  were  soon  to  be 
undeceived. 

At  the  present  moment  the  American  people  might  with 
(171) 


172  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

some  show  of  accuracy  be  divided  into  Americans  and  a 
subdivision  of  what  the  newspapers  call  "Hyphenated- 
Americans. 

This  subdivision  seems  to  consist  chiefly,  if  not  entirely, 
of  a  certain  number  of  Teutonic  accessions  to  our  citizen- 
ship— i.  e.,  of  "German- Americans."  What  numerical 
relation  it  has  to  the  whole  body  of  useful  and  valued 
American  citizens  of  German  birth  or  ancestry  it  is  just 
now  impossible  to  determine.  The  classification  I  suggest 
would  rest  upon  three  chief  characteristics:  1.  A  pro- 
nounced tendency  to  unfriendly  or  contemptuous  criticism 
of  the  United  States.  2.  Undiscriminating  sympathy  with 
and  support  of  the  actions  of  Germany  before  and  during 
the  present  war.  3.  An  effort  to  arouse  anti-British  prej- 
udice among  Americans. 

The  so-called  German-Americans  who  do  not  belong  in 
the  group  thus  defined  may  be  in  the  large  majority.  I 
hope  they  are.  But  thus  far  they  have  scarcely  been  heard 
from,  while  the  others  are  almost  daily  appealing  to  Amer- 
icans for  intellectual  and  moral  aid  and  countenance.  That 
their  appeals  are  often  tactless,  frequently  untruthful,  and 
sometimes  insulting,  is  an  interesting  phenomenon  which  is 
deserving  of  study. 

In  a  biological  investigation  certain  factors  would  be  at 
once  considered  if  the  cause  of  a  particular  racial  or  tribal 
peculiarity  were  being  sought  for.  Chief  among  these 
factors  would  be  heredity  and  environment,  the  latter  in- 
cluding the  customary  diet  with  the  sources  of  food  supply. 
This  would  be  true  whether  the  peculiarity  were  physical 
or  psychical — i.  e.f  whether  it  was,  for  example,  a  matter 
of  stature  and  complexion  or  a  matter  of  belief  and  reli- 
gious observance.  Similarly,  the  food  that  may  have  helped 
to  produce  it  would  be  of  interest  to  the  investigator, 
whether  it  were  for  the  body  or  for  the  mind — e.  g., 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  173 

whether  clay-eating  causing  the  swollen  belly  of  the  Digger, 
or  Chauvinistic  literature  causing — to  use  the  vernacular — 
the  swollen  head  of  the  "world  power  or  perish"  German. 

Viewed  from  this  standpoint  the  phenomenon  in  ques- 
tion seeijas  to  admit  of  easy  explanation.  The  influence  of 
heredity  is,  of  course,  obvious  and  unmistakable.  Thus  far 
the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  apologists — little  or  big 
— for  Germany  in  this  country  are  of  German  birth  or 
descent.  It  is  rare  to  find  an  American  name  prefixed  or 
appended  to  an  article  or  communication  calling  for  the 
sympathy  of  Americans  for  Germany  in  this  crisis,  or 
asking  them  to  "suspend  judgment,"  or  appealing  for 
"fairness  and  moderation,"  or  extolling  the  bravery,  the 
self-sacrifice  and  the  high  moral  purposes  of  the  Germans; 
or  even  narrating  the  extreme  consideration  shown  them  in 
Germany  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war. 

Coupled  with  their  articles  is  not  uncommonly  abuse  of 
American  methods,  attempts  to  show  that  we  have  ourselves 
been  guilty  of  crimes  no  less  abhorrent  than  those  with 
which  Germany  is  charged,  assertions  that  our  indignation 
is  hypocrisy  and  that  the  overwhelming  anti-German  senti- 
ment of  the  country  is  due  to  lying  newspapers  influencing 
a  hysterical  populace. 

One  "German- American"  journalistic  "conciliator"  who 
seems  to  be  especially  charged  with  the  duty  of  combating 
and  modifying  the  prevailing  deep  and  spontaneous  sym- 
pathy for  the  Allies  actually  attributes  the  public  expres- 
sions of  this  sympathy  to  our  hypocrisy  and  untruthfulness. 

This  would  be  inexplicable  if  it  were  not  for  certain  facts 
that  throw  upon  it  an  illuminating  sidelight. 

We  have  already  seen  the  attitude  of  many  German 
writers  toward  this  country.  It  is  obvious  that  they  have 
been  supplying  not  only  to  Germans,  but  also  to  German- 
Americans,  the  mental  pabulum  which  has  nourished  in 


174  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

the  Litter  the  combined  sentiment  of  worship  of  militarism 
and  dislike  for  the  ideals  of  the  country  of  their  adoption. 
This  seems  extravagant.,  and  it  is  certainly  surprising  that 
such  a  statement  could  have  even  a  slight  basis  of  truth. 
But  listen  to  Munsterberg:  (75)  "In  the  German  view  the 
State  is  not  for  the  individuals,  but  the  individuals  for  the 
State." 

And  again : 

"Those  men  who  have  achieved  the  marvelous  progress  of 
German  civilization  have  done  it  in  the  conviction  that  the 
military  spirit  is  a  splendid  training  for  cultural  efficiency. 
The  university  professors  have  always  been  the  most  enthusiastic 
defenders  of  the  system.  .  .  . 

"Germany  is  not  understood  by  those  who  fancy  that  defeat 
would  tear  an  abyss  between  the  people  and  the  Emperor.  There 
is  not  room  in  Germany  for  a  president.  The  idea  of  a  presi- 
dent is  that  he  draws  his  power  from  the  will  of  the  millions  of 
individuals.  The  idea  of  the  emperor  is  that  he  is  the  symbol 
of  the  State  as  a  whole,  independent  from  the  will  of  the  in- 
dividuals, and  therefore  independent  of  any  elections.  In  the 
symbol  of  the  crown,  far  above  the  struggles  of  partisan  indi- 
viduals, lies  the  idea  of  the  German  nation." 

Professor  Kuno  Prancke  said  in  a  recent  speech : 

"To  the  German  the  State  is  a  spiritual,  collective  personality 
leading  a  life  of  its  own  beyond  the  lives  of  individuals,  and 
its  aim  is  not  the  protection  of  the  happiness  of  individuals, 
but  the  making  of  a  nobler  type  of  man  and  the  achievement  of 
high  excellence  in  all  the  departments,  of  life."  This  is  the 
Kaiser's  ideal,  too,  and  his  glorification  of  his  office  "makes 
him  the  incarnation  of  the  active  and  disciplined  Germany." 

Upon  this  statement  E.  S.  Martin  comments  as  follows  : 
(76) 

"We  are  all  trying  hard  just  now  to  understand  the  Germans, 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  175 

and  these  words  of  Dr.  Francke  are  adapted  to  help  us.  Just 
now  this  German  ideal  has  to  be  taken  in  association  with  about 
five  million  highly  competent  soldiers,  all  practicing  to  spread 
it,  and  a  large  supply  of  exceptionally  efficient  Krupp  guns 
exploding  to  the  same  end.  The  association  is  a  little  trying 
to  the  ideal.  Is  that  a  mere  misfortune,  or  do  the  army  and 
the  ideal  belong  together?  Is  this  German  ideal  necessarily 
tied  up  to  militarism  because  it  is  necessarily  hostile  to  the 
ideal  of  individual  freedom  that  belongs  to  such  nations  as 
France,  England,  Belgiunij  and  the  United  States?  Nobody 
outside  of  Germany  would  object,  it  would  seem,  to  Dr. 
Francke's  German  ideal  unless  there  is  'Something  in  it  that 
threatens  the  security  of  other  nations." 

Here  are  some  more  quotations  from  "German-Amer- 
icans": (77) 

"The  overwhelming  majority  of  the  Germans  give  their 
heartiest  support  to  their  far-seeing  and  wise  monarch." 

"Modern  Germany,  with  all  her  great  achievements,  is  insep- 
arable from  the  Germany  of  military  discipline,  and  would 
never  have  come  into  existence  without  the  support  of  a  strong, 
steadfast  and  determined  government.  The  'two  Germanys' 
must  stand  or  fall  together,  for  the  German  people  and  their 
Kaiser  are  one!" 

"The  German  people  are  as  inseparable  from  their  Kaiser  as 
we  in  America  are  from  our  Constitution." 

"The  whole  German  people  are  practically  unanimous  in  the 
opinion  that  the  monarchical  form  of  government,  with  great 
authority  and  strongly  centralized,  is  the  best  for  them.  Even 
the  great  Social  Democratic  party  is  organized  upon  this  prin- 
ciple, and  does  not  in  the  least  resemble  a  Democratic  party 
in  the  American  sense  of  the  word." 

The  Kolnische  Zeitung  (78)  publishes  a  letter  from  a 
German — or  German-American — resident  in  this  country, 
as  to  the  events  immediately  following  the  outbreak  of  the 
war: 


176  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"These  were  glorious  days!  ...  A  holy  wrath  breaks 
over  us,  the  furor  teutonicus.  All  Germany  flames  up  like  a 
powder-mine.  .  .  .  Who  is  not  for  us  is  against  us.  And 
they  were  all,  all  against  us,  America  the  most  furious.  Search 
history  as  you  will,  you  will  not  find  a  page  that  records'  the 
like  of  what  appears  in  these  days  in  the  American  press.  They 
write  with  Indian  arrowheads  and  for  ink  use  viper's  venom. 
Has  ever  one  member  of  the  family  of  nations  ventured  to  em- 
ploy against  another  such  a  mode  of  speech,  especially  when 
that  other  was  locked  in  a  most  sanguinary  strife? 

"And  America  is  a  neutral  State !  .  .  .  Americans,  with 
left-handed  meaning,  speak  of  the  Kaiser  as  'the  War  Lord.' 
And  for  the  honest  Yankee  there  is  no  more  ghastly  title  than 
this.  For  it  sounds  better  to  play  the  peace  waltz!  On  all 
the  editorial  organs  they  play  now  only  one  melody :  Germany 
is  the  world's  champion  peace-buster  (Allerweltsstorenfried) , 
and  when  peace  is  broken  the  freedom  of  the  people  is  beaten 
into  fragments.  ...  A  land,  a  people,  a  -nation,  is  the 
prey  of  the  American  vultures  of  the  press.  For  these  conveyors 
of  culture  there  is  no  such  thing  as  honor  of  country,  people, 
or  nation." 

"The  Kolnische  Zeitimg  also  prints  an  article  by  a  Dr.  Charles 
Hexamer,  of  Philadelphia,  who  tells  his  readers  that  he  is 
not  proud  of  America.  He  accuses  the  United  States  of  praying 
on  Sundays  for  peace  and  supplying  England  and  its  Allies 
with  war  materials  on  other  days  of  the  week.  This,  he 
exclaims,  is  hypocrisy  and  would  be  more  consistent  were  Amer- 
ica to  relinquish  her  Star  Spangled  Banner  and  proud  motto, 
'E  Pluribus  Unum,'  and  supply  herself  with  a  flag  inscribed: 
The  dollar,  no  matter  how  you  get  it,  so  long  as  you  get  it.' " 
(79) 

Further  quotations  illustrating  this  subject  will  be  found 
in  Chapter  X. 

Price  Collier  throws  some  light  on  the  matter  as  regards 
the  German  Germans  when  he  says:  (80) 

"In  order  to  build  up  his  patriotism  the  German  has  been 
taught  systematically  to  dislike  the  Austfians.  then  the  French, 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  177 

now  the  English,  and  let  not  the  American  suppose  that  he 
likes  the  American  any  better,  for  he  does  not." 

Pere  Didon  also  helps  when  he  writes:  (81) 

"J'ai  essaye"  maintes  fois  de  decouvrir  chez  Pallemanti  une 
sympathie  quelconque  pour  d'autres  nations;  je  n'y  ai  r6ussi." 

But  the  most  illuminating  comment  is  made  in  another 
portion  of  Collier's  book,  where  he  sums  up  his  views  as  to 
the  entire  Germanic  system: 

"There  is  no  such  thing  in  Germany  as  democratic  or  repre- 
sentative government. 

"The  orderliness  of  the  Germans  is  all  forced  upon  them 
from  without,  and  is  not  due  to  their  own  knowledge  of  how  to 
take  care  of  themselves. 

"German  State  socialism  is,  in  a  nutshell,  the  decision  on  the 
part  of  the  rulers  that  the  individual  is  not  competent  to  spend 
his  own  money,  choose  his  own  calling,  use  his  own  time  as  he 
will  or  provide  for  his  own  future  or  the  various  emergencies 
of  life.  By  minute  State  control  they  are  rapidly  bringing  the 
whole  population  to  an  enfeebled  social  and  political  condition, 
where  they  can  do  nothing  for  themselves.  .  .  .  There  are 
3,000,000  officials,  great  and  small,  in  Germany,  and  14,000,- 
000  electors,  or,  roughly,  one  policeman  to  every  five  adults. 

"I  have  said  that  the  population  is  well  fed,  well  clothed 
and  well  looked  after.  Of  course  they  are.  No  slave  owner 
so  maltreats  his  slaves  that  they  cannot  work  for  him.  But 
is  man  fed  by  bread  alone  ? 

.  "The  electors,  now  so  flattered  by  the  smooth  phrases 
of  their  tyrants  disguised  as  liberators,  will  one  day  be  aghast 
to  find  themselves  in  a  veritable  house  of  correction  paid  for 
from  their  own  savings. 

"The  very  barrenness  of  the  soil,  the  ring  of  enemies,  the 
soft  moral  and  social  texture  of  the  population,  have,  so  their 
little  knot  of  rulers  think,  made  necessary  these  harsh,  artificial 
forcing  methods.  The  outstanding  proof  of  the  artificiality  of 
this  civilization  is  its  powerlessness  to  propagate.  Germans 
transplanted  from  their  hothouse  civilization  to  other  countries 
12 


178  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

cease  to  be  Germans;  and  nowhere  in  the  world  outside  Ger- 
many is  German  civilization  imitated,  liked  or  adopted. 

"Autocracy,  bureaucracy  and  militarism  are  triplets  of  straw, 
not  destined  to  live.  They  are  precocious  children,  teaching 
the  pallid  religion  of  dependence  upon  the  State  and  enforcing 
the  anarchical  morality  of  man's  despair  of  himself. 

"Germany  has  organized  herself  into  an  organization,  and 
is  the  most  overgoverned  country  in  the  world.  Life  is  to  live, 
not  to  think,  after  all.  This  is  where  the  metaphysician  invari- 
ably fails  when  he  mistakes  thinking  for  living,  when  he  mis- 
takes organization,  which  can  never  be  more  than  a  mold  for 
life,  for  life  itself. 

"Germany  has  shown  us  that  the  short  cut  to  the  govern- 
ment of  a  people  by  suppression  and  strangulation  results  in 
a  dreary  development  of  mediocrity.  She  has  proved  again 
that  the  only  safety  for  either  an  individual  or  a  nation  is  to  be 
loved  and  respected ;  and  in  these  days  no  one  respects,  slavery 
or  loves  threats." 

Another  American  writer,  after  making  this  quotation, 
adds:  (82) 

"Such  is  the  true  meaning  of  the  system  which  has  produced 
the  modern  Germany  of  machine-like  efficiency,  of  a  govern- 
mental philosophy  founded  upon  force,  of  universal  submission 
to  undemocratic  ideals.  It  is  a  picture  to  sadden  all  admirers 
of  the  race  which  has  wrought  such  benefits  to  mankind. 

"Yet  this  is  the  system  which  patriotic  Germans  in  America 
insist  is  necessary.  The  fruits  of  German  energy  and  genius, 
they  say,  are  due  not  to  racial  capacity,  but  to  the  crushing 
out  of  individualism  and  the  surrender  of  national  liberty  to  the 
purpose  of  creating  a  glorified  State. 

"In  plain  terms,  they  declare  the  astonishing  theory  that  the 
German  people  are  incapable  of  progress  under  democratic 
institutions,  but  have  become  great  in  the  mass  only  because 
they  have  subordinated  the  nation's  will  to  an  intelligent  offi- 
cialdom and  ordered  their  lives  to  the  commands  of  a  mili- 
taristic discipline." 

"The  most  startling  among  Bernhardi's  doctrines  are  (1)  the 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  179 

denial  that  there  are  any  duties  owed  by  the  State  to  humanity, 
except  that  of  imposing  its  own  superior  civilization  upon  as 
large  a  part  of  humanity  as  possible,  and  (2)  the  denial  of  the 
duty  of  observing  treaties.  Treaties  are  only  so  much  paper. 

"To  modern  German  writers  the  State  is  a  much  more  tre- 
mendous entity  than  it  is  to  Englishmen  or  Americans.  It 
is  a  supreme  power  with  a  sort  of  mystic  sanctity,  a  power 
conceived  of,  as  it  were,  self -created ;  a  force  altogether  distinct 
from,  and  superior  to,  the  persons  who  compose  it. 

"Let  us  see  how  these  doctrines  affect  the  smaller  and 
weaker  States  which  have  hitherto  lived  in  comparative  security 
beside  the  Great  Powers. 

"They  will  be  absolutely  at  the  mercy  of  the  stronger.  Even 
if  protected  by  treaties  guaranteeing  their  neutrality  and  inde- 
pendence, they  will  not  be  safe,  for  treaty  obligations  are  worth- 
less 'when  they  do  not  correspond  to  facts,'  i.  e.,  when  the 
strong  Power  finds  that  they  stand  in  its  way.  Its  interests 
are  paramount. 

"If  a  State  has  valuable  minerals,  as  Sweden  has  iron,  and 
Belgium  coal,  and  Rumania  oil ;  or  if  it  has  abundance  of  water, 
power,  like  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Switzerland;  or  if  it  holds 
the  mouth  of  a  navigable  river,  the  upper  course  of  which 
belongs  to  another  nation,  the  great  State  may  conquer  and 
annex  the  small  State  as  soon  as  it  finds  that  it  needs  the 
minerals,  or  the  water-power,  or  the  river  mouth. 

"It  has  the  Power,  and  Power  gives  Right.  The  interests, 
the  sentiments',  the  patriotism  and  love  of  independence  of  the 
small  people  go  for  nothing. 

"Civilization  has  turned  back  upon  itself.  Culture  is  to 
expand  itself  by  barbaric  force.  Governments  derive  their 
authority  not  from  the  consent  of  the  governed,  but  from  the 
weapons  of  the  conqueror."  (83) 

Among  the  unenviable  peculiarities  our  German-Amer- 
ican citizens  have  developed  is  one  already  alluded  to,  a 
determined  effort  to  arouse  anti-British  feeling  by  refer- 
ence to  all  the  occasions  when  there  has  been  war  or  dispute 
between  the  two  countries  from  the  time  of  the  Eevolution 
down  to  the  Venezuelan  incident. 


180  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

But  this  is  as  clumsy,  as  ineffective  and,  I  think,  as 
distasteful  to  most  Americans  as  their  equally  uncouth 
attempts  at  flattery. 

They  forget  that  America  has  never  been  the  home  of 
"grudges";  that  every  important  incident  they  cite,  even 
the  most  recent,  belongs  to  the  period  of  generations  that 
have  passed  away.  They  forget  that  the  greatest  war  of 
the  last  century,  between  two  sections  of  our  own  country, 
has  been,  so  far  as  continued  rancor  and  bitterness  are  con- 
cerned, as  completely  forgotten  as  if  it  had  occurred  in  the 
time  of  the  Crusades.  They  forget  that  the  ideals  of  the 
English-speaking  people  the  world  over  are  at  once  the 
most  democratic  and  the  nearest  to  successful  realization 
that  the  world  has  ever  seen,  and  that  our  brothers  in  the 
French  Eepublic  have  their  faces  steadfastly  set  toward  the 
same  goal. 

They  forget  that  our  present  differences  are  in  essence 
trivial  and  superficial,  while  our  likenesses  are  flesh  of  our 
flesh  and  bone  of  our  bone. 

They  ignore  the  fact  that  the  fairest  and  most  penetrating 
analysis  of  our  country,  our  methods  and  our  people  ever 
written  was  from  the  pen  of  a  Briton,  Viscount  Bryce ;  and 
that  the  most  sympathetic  and  impartial  story  of  our  War 
of  Independence  was  told  by  an  English  historian,  Sir 
George  Trevelyan.  They  are  stupid  enough  to  forget  the 
incident  in  Manila  Bay  in  1898,  when  the  German 
Admiral  Von  Diedrichs,  after  a  series  of  petty  and  pro- 
vocative infractions  of  the  blockade  established  by  Admiral 
Dewey,  approached  Captain  Chichester,  in  command  of 
the  British  fleet,  to  learn  what  he  would  do  if  further  dis- 
regard of  Dewey's  orders  were  shown.  But  the  American 
people  have  not  forgotten  Captain  Chichester's  reply  to  the 
effect  that  he  "would  do  whatever  Dewey  wanted  him 
to  do." 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  181 

Nor  have  they  forgotten  that  at  that  very  time  Germany 
was  endeavoring  to  bring  about  an  "understanding"  among 
European  Powers  that  would  result  in  interference  on 
behalf  of  Spain. 

Our  German-American  quarrel  makers  do  not  know 
doubtless,  but  many  of  us  know,  that  in  the  "Strangers' 
Boom,"  of  the  chief  Liberal  Club  of  London,  a  room  where 
all  visitors  are  shown,  there  hangs  in  the  place  of  honor 
over  the  mantel  a  framed  facsimile  of  our  Declaration  of 
Independence,  while  above  it  is  a  medallion  with  the  super- 
imposed silhouettes  in  low  relief,  of  Washington,  Lincoln 
and  Grant.  In  the  same  room  the  Magna  Charta  occupies 
a  less  conspicuous  position. 

Fortunately,  they  are  about  as  likely  permanently  to 
disturb  or  seriously  to  affect  the  relations  between  England 
and  this  country  as  their  "Fatherland"  is  to  realize  its 
insane  dream  of  "World  Power."  (See  pp.  22,  38  et  seq.) 

They  are  circulating  the  speeches  of  some  unimportant 
irreconcilables  like  Ramsay  Macdonald  in  opposition  to  the 
war.  Why  don't  they  quote  the  communications  of  the 
German  Humanity  League,  of  Berlin,  to  the  Britisli 
Humanity  League,  in  which  the  Kaiser  is  characterized 
as  the  "uncurbed  tyrant,  surrounded  by  parasites,  and 
now  directing  the  most  desperate,  devilish  and  selfish 
campaign  ever  waged  against  humanity,"  and  as  "the  despot 
whose  insatiable  egotism  is  drenching  Europe  with  the 
blood  of  its  workers  and  wage  earners?"  (84) 

Perhaps  Miinsterberg's  book,  "The  War  and  America," 
best  illustrates  the  fatuity  of  the  German-American  apolo- 
gists as  well  as  their  awkward  and  stupid  mixture  of 
unpalatable  flattery  and  unfriendly  criticism. 

The  book  has  been  admirably  dissected  by  a  recent  re- 
viewer. (85)  Professor  Miinsterberg  has  received  so 
much  undeserved  attention  from  our  American  journalists 


182  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

that  it  is  worth  while  to  quote  portions  of  this  review. 

"His  method  of  argument  seems  directed  at  a  singularly 
untrained  public.  .  .  .  His  major  premises  he  never  takes 
the  pains  to  substantiate.  Instead,  he  reiterates  them  as  axio- 
matic, 'Culturally,  Russia  is  Asia,'  Russia  desires  to  blot  out 
Western  European  civilization,  hence  Germany  is  fighting  for 
civilization  against  barbarism,  in  an  inevitable  conflict.  These 
fundamental  notions  are  drummed  in  with  Prussian  thor- 
oughness. But  these  are  just  the  postulates  that  a  thoughtful 
reader  wants  to  have  proved.  .  .  .  Aside  from  bandying 
big  impressive  antitheses — Teuton  and  Slav,  Europe,  Asia,  etc. 
— Professor  Miinsterberg  varies  his  tactics  by  condescending 
flattery  of  America ;  and  by  occasional  excursions  in  pure  senti- 
ment. The  whole  melange  is  highly  seasoned,  and  possibly 
grateful  to  the  literary  palate  of  the  very  simple  reader  for 
whom  it  is  concocted. 

"The  omniscient  tone  of  the  plea  is  characteristic.  . 
Such  a  generalization  as  that  Europe  means  thought  while 
Asia  means  feeling,  and  accordingly  one  must  cut  the  other's 
throat,  is  admirably  calculated  to  solve  the  vexed  problem  of 
West  and  East — in  any  corner  grocery  store.  And  for  whom 
does  Professor  Miinsterberg  limn  the  picture  of  an  idyllic, 
scholarly,  industrial,  unaggressive,  and  wholly  pacific  Germany 
reluctantly  kept  under  arms  by  bellicose  neighbors?  Plainly, 
for  a  reader  who  has  not  heard  of  the  partition  of  Poland,  the 
seizing  of  Silesia,  the  grasping  of  Schleswig-Holstein,  the  annex- 
ation of  Hanover,  the  retention  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  and, 
only  yesterday,  the  premature  incorporation  of  Belgium  into 
the  German  Empire. 

"Then  what  kind  of  a  reader  is  asked  to  swallow  whole  the 
theory  of  a  ruthlessly  aggressive  Russia  menacing  all  Western 
Europe?  Evidently,  a  reader  who  does  not  know  that,  first, 
Russia  set  conquered  Germany  on  her  feet,  then  Austria 
threatened  by  the  Hungarian  revolution — a  reader  who  does 
not  know  that  in  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  when  Russia  was 
strong  and  Central  Europe  a  congeries  of  weak  states,  Russia 
showed  no  exceptional  aggressiveness  against  European  Powers. 

.  .  .  "We  must  note  the  kind  of  philosophical  thought  that 
underlies  the  surface  rhetoric.  It  is  a  philosophy  not  overtly 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  183 

expressed.  It  would  hardly  bear  ventilation  in  America.  You 
may  sense  it  in  the  sharp  distinction  between  'routine  agree- 
ments like  the  neutrality  treaties/  and  a  'pledge  of  interna- 
tional honor*  like  the  Triple  Alliance.  Why  is  there  no  pledge 
of  honor  in  a  neutrality  agreement?  Plainly  because  it  is 
made  with  and  in  behalf  of  a  weak  Power.  Honor  first  begins 
among  peers.  Thus  is  honor  made  in  the  Germany  of  Zabern. 

"Again  consider  the  system  of  international  morals  implied 
in  the  following: 

"  'It  was  the  ethical  duty  of  the  Russians  to  strain  every 
effort  for  the  expansion  of  their  influence,  and  it  was  the 
ethical  duty  of  the  Germans  and  Austrians  to  strain  every 
effort  to  prevent  it.  In  the  same  way,  it  was  the  moral  right 
of  France  to  make  use  of  any  hour  of  German  embarrassment 
for  recapturing  its  military  glory  by  a  victory  of  revenge.  And 
it  was  the  moral  right  of  England  to  exert  its  energies  for 
keeping  control  of  the  seas  and  for  destroying  the  commercial 
rivalry  of  the  Germans.  No  one  is  to  be  blamed.' 

"International  morality,  that  is,  consists  in  the  insensate 
inevitable  clash  of  national  egotisms,  which,  being  national,  are 
holy.  .  .  . 

"We  have  left  dangling  the  very  interesting  question:  For 
what  kind  of  a  reader  is  this  skillful  blend  of  dogmatism,  innu- 
endo, sophistry,  and  gush  intended?  Fortunately,  Professor 
Miinsterberg  has  the  candor  to  make  the  matter  clear.  It  is 
addressed  to  'the  American  mind'  which  has  an  'unusual  degree 
of  imitativeness  and  suggestibility/  It  is  addressed  to  the 
individual  American  who,  when  excited,  tends  to  become  'a 
mere  automatic  mechanism  in  which  the  thoughts  and  feelings 
and  impulses  of  his  neighbor  control  his  mind.'  .  .  .  'There 
is  a  lack  of  individual  resistance  to  prescribed  opinions  which 
produces  in  excited  states  a  colorless  wholesale  judgment  which 
may  be  entirely  different  from  the  natural  stand  of  the  sober 
single  individual.'  Elsewhere  we  learn  that  in  all  European 
matters  the  American  is  moved  chiefly  by  a  provincial  prejudice 
against  the  paraphernalia  and  nomenclature  of  monarchy.  He 
takes  mere  names  for  real  things. 

"Professor  Miinsterberg  has  produced  a  book  that  is  precisely 
adapted  to  impress  the  sort  of  'American  mind,'  lie  thus  defines, 
but  no  other  sort." 


184  A  TEXT-BOOK  OP  THE  WAR 

Even  in  his  latest  text-book  of  Psychology  he  evinces  the 
same  insufferable  belief  in  essential  racial  superiority, 
saying:  (p.  234) 

"The  Southern  peoples  are  children  of  the  moment;  the 
Teutonic  live  in  the  things  which  lie  beyond  the  world,  in  the 
infinite  and  the  ineffable." 

Mr.  E.  S.  Martin  (the  editor  of  "Life")  has  paid  his 

respects  to  Miinsterberg  as  follows:  (86) 

"Your  book  must  convince  any  un-German  reader  that  we 
shall  never  see  the  case  as  you  see  it.  The  idea  which  you 
offer  of  simple,  honest  Germany  taking  a  few  indispensable 
military  precautions  against  the  ravening  wolves  of  Europe, 
and  especially  against  the  impending  hug  of  the  terrible  bear, 
is  comic  to  us,  Herr  Doctor.  We  can't  help  it.  With  all  due 
respect,  we  remember  Frederick  William  and  his  tall  grenadiers, 
Frederick  the  Great  and  Maria  Theresa,  Bismarck's  Prussia 
and  Austria  in  '66,  and  then  what  you  call  'the  war  of  1870 
recklessly  stirred  by  the  intolerance  of  Imeprial  France,'  and 
since  1888  the  Kaiser  and  his  Krupps,  and  we  smile,  Herr 
Doctor;  we  just  have  to. 

"Blood  and  iron  is  a  great  medicine,  but  Germany,  as  we 
see  it,  has  overdosed  herself  with  it.  She  has  not  made  a  friend 
in  Europe  since  Bismarck  died.  They  say  he  was  overruled 
when  Alsace  and  Lorraine  were  detached  from  France.  They 
tell  us  the  Kaiser  was  tricked  into  this  war  by  the  Prussian 
warhogs.  Alas,  Professor  Miinsterberg,  it  is  not  the  Americans 
who  are  the  enemies  of  Germany.  You  will  find  in  due  time  that 
they  do  not  hate  the  good  Germans.  The  enemies  of  Germany 
have  been  men  of  her  own  household,  the  men  who  have  not 
only  dreamed,  but  published  to  the  world  what  you  scornfully 
describe  as  'the  fantastic  dreams  of  the  so-called  Pan-Germans.' 
Why,  since  1870,  has  Germany  confidently  expected  another 
great  war?  Why  has  she  ceaselessly  trained  men,  built  fort- 
resses, cast  guns,  hoarded  money  and  organized  to  the  last 
detail  a  campaign  against  the  rest  of  Europe?  The  reason,  as 
we  see  it,  is  that  the  small  class  that  guides  the  destinies  of 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  185 

her  industrious  millions  has  had  'God  with  Us'  for  its  motto 
and  'Rule  or  Ruin'  for  its  policy.  Germany  is  a  great  country 
gone  wrong.  She  is  getting 'what  her  rulers  have  earned  for 
her.  They  have  made  her  an  impossible  nation;  a  menace  to 
mankind.  She  has  put  her  trust  in  force,  alienated  her  natural 
allies,  dishonored  her  treaties.  Now  her  appeal  to  force  has 
gone  to  judgment.  If  she  conquers  Europe  ruin  will  find  her 
in  victory  as  it  found  Napoleon.  If  Europe  conquers  her  she 
will  get  off  easier;  but  either  way  she  has  terrible  sorrows 
ahead  of  her  and  is  a  fit  object  of  pity  for  all  kind  people." 

One  more  extract  from  a  thoughtful  reviewer  (John 
Cowper  Powys),  (87),  of  the  Miinsterberg  book  must 
suffice. 

"With  this  end  in  view  Professor  Miinsterberg  sweeps  aside 
all  the  reports  about  German  brutality  and  German  vandalism 
and  concentrates  his  attention  upon  two  main  propositions: 
First,  that  Germany's  preparations  for  the  war  were  purely 
defensive;  second,  that  Germany's  defeat  in  the  war  would 
mean  a  devastating  blow  for  'culture,'  and  a  disastrous  set- 
back to  the  best  interests  of  humanity.  With  regard  to  those 
acts  of  German  vandalism  which  he  sweeps  out  of  his  path, 
Professor  Miinsterberg  has  only  one  word  to  say:  'Is  there 
any  truth  in  all  this?  Yes;  one  truth,  which  is  undeniable, 
which  is  sad,  which  is  awful,  namely,  that  war  is  war.'  To 
this  interesting  acknowledgement  that  war  is  a  game  with 
no  rules,  Professor  Miinsterberg  adds  the  following  charming 
example  of  airy  and  graceful  humor:  'When  the  big  head- 
lines tell  the  reader  again  that  the  German  soldiers  slaughtered 
babies  yesterday  in  the  town  which  they  captured,  he  will 
conjecture  for  himself  that  in  reality  they  probably  slaughtered 
some  chickens  for  which  they  paid  in  full.' 

In  spite  of  his  use  of  the  term  'war  is  war,'  as  an  answer  to 
all  critics  of  German  war-methods,  our  Professor  cannot  resist 
the  temptation  to  make  certain  'side-issue'  appeals  to  proverbial 
American  opinion.  'The  Americans,'  says  he,  'did  not  like 
Japan's  mixing  in  on  the  side  of  England.  This  capturing  of 
Germany's  little  colony  in  China  by  a  sly  trick,  when  Germany's 
hands  were  bound,  had  to  awake  sympathy  in  every  American. 


186  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

But  this  was  outdone  by  the  latest  move  of  the  campaign  which 
has  brought  Hindus  from  India  and  Turcos  from  Africa  into 
line  against  the  German  people.  To  force  these  colored  races, 
which  surely  have  not  the  slightest  cause  to  fight  the  German 
nation,  into  battle  against  the  Teutons,  is  an  act  which  must 
have  brought  a  feeling  of  shame  for  the  Allies  to  every  true 
American.' 

"How  naive  indeed  must  be  the  Professor's  sense  of  Amer- 
ican intelligence!  Without  the  least  disparagement  to  the 
attractive  negro  population  in  America,  no  one  would  for  a 
moment  think  of  comparing  them  to  the  children  of  the  imme- 
morial traditions  of  India.  To  introduce  such  a  comparison 
at  all  with  this  invidious  expression,  f colored  races/  is  only 
to  throw  the  shadow  of  special  pleading  across  the  whole  of 
his  arguments." 

All  the  most  recent  activities  among  the  German-Amer- 
icans confirm  the  view  that  at  least  their  spokesmen  are,  at 
heart,  Germans,,  with  German  ideals  and  aspirations  abso- 
lutely incompatible  with  those  of  every  far-seeing  Amer- 
ican. One  of  our  leading  papers  (88),  under  the  heading 
"A  German-American  Menace,"  discusses  the  situation  as 
follows : 

"Citizens  of  this  country,  whatever  the  land  of  their  birth, 
have  a  perfect  right  to  organize  for  any  benevolent  purpose 
that  they  approve.  They  can  form  societies,  if  they  please,  in 
order  radically  to  alter  our  form  of  government  or  to  induce 
it  to  change  its  foreign  policy.  If  they  are  actuated  by 
patriotic  American  motives,  no  one  will  object,  however,  he 
may  disagree  with  the  aim.  But  when  this  organizing  is  plainly 
in  the  interest  of  a  foreign  Government,  and  would  inevitably 
result  in  dividing  all  Americans  into  two  camps  over  an  issue 
foreign  to  this  country,  those  who  undertake  it  are  playing 
with  extremely  dangerous  fire.  It  will  tend  to  inject  hatred 
and  bitterness  into  our  treatment  of  questions  relating  to  our 
foreign  affairs,  at  the  worst  possible  time  for  such  a  display 
of  partisanship.  If  ever  there  was  an  hour  when  patriotic 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  187 

citizens  should  refrain  from  acts  likely  to  embroil  this  Govern- 
ment at  home  or  abroad,  it  is  the  present. 

"Our  German- Americans  who  are  citizens,  and  not  merely 
sojourners  among  us,  were  supposed  when  they  took  out  their 
naturalization  papers  to  have  abandoned  their  allegiance  to 
Germany,  and  to  have  sworn  fealty  to  our  institutions.  Now 
many  of  them  are  acting  as  if  they  were  never  Americans  at 
all,  but  merely  Germans  who  live  here  for  convenience.  They 
are  looking  at  this  whole  question,  not  from  the  American  point 
of  view,  but  the  German.  When  they  demand  that  all  ship- 
ments of  arms  to  Europe  be  stopped,  it  is  because  they  favor 
Germany,  and  are  working  in  her  interest.  When  they  say 
they  desire  to  elect  Congressmen  who  shall  'compel  the  Admin- 
istration to  enforce  strict  neutrality,'  they  mean  that,  since 
the  laws,  by  reason  of  British  control  of  the  sea  happen  to 
favor  the  Allies,  they  wish  those  laws  changed.  If  they  hap- 
pened to  favor  Germany  we  should  hear  not  a  word  from  the 
German-Americans.  They  are  judging  thus  upon  what  will 
help  Germany;  how  it  affects  the  United  States  they  care  not 
at  all.  They  are,  for  instance,  outspoken  not  only  against 
England,  but  against  Japan ;  for  Germany's  sake  they  are  play- 
ing upon  the  string  of  racial  prejudice  and  are  apparently  quite 
willing  to  intensify  the  misunderstandings  between  the -United 
States  and  the  Mikado's  people,  without  thought  of  the  peril. 

"For  the  first  time  they  have  raised  the  question  of  the 
loyalty  of  foreign-born  citizens,  not  their  loyalty  in  time  of  war, 
but  that  deeper,  firmer,  and  nobler  allegiance  to  our  institutions 
which  we  have  a  right  to  expect  of  true  Americans.  For  it  ia 
impossible  to  uphold  German  autocracy  and  American  repre- 
sentative Government  at  the  same  time;  they  are  too  utterly 
dissimilar  to  make  it  possible.  At  bottom  there  are  the  same 
fundamental  differences  that  existed  when  the  men  of  1848 
fled  to  this  country  for  political  asylum.  But  those  who  are 
trying  to  raise  up  a  German  national  party  here  in  the  reflected 
heat  of  the  great  struggle  abroad  overlook  all  this,  as  they 
do  the  probability  of  their  opening  serious  cleavage  between 
themselves  and  the  other  American  citizens  which  will  last 
for  years  to  come.  With  the  outcome  of  the  war  for  Germany 
they  have,  strictly  speaking,  no  more  concern  than  the  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  Americans  who  are  indebted  to  her  for 
one  cause  or  another.  What  they  ought  to  be  praying  for  is 


188  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

an  outcome  which  will  so  remodel  German  institutions  as  to 
make  them  more  nearly  like  our  own.  What  they  ought  to  be 
striving  for  is  to  so  bear  themselves  that  at  the  end  of  the 
war  they  will  have  won  golden  opinions  on  this  side  of  the 
water  for  their  forbearance,  for  their  tolerance,  and  their  Amer- 
icanism. 

"Instead,  the  course  they  are  threatening  to  pursue  leads 
straight  towards  bitterness^  sectionalism,  and  disorder  in  our 
political  life.  It  is  as  if  they  sought  to  make  themselves  feared 
and  disliked.  As  ex-President  Taylor,  of  Vassar  College,  has 
put  it:  "This  is  not  patriotism;  it  is  pure  alienism." 

In  spite  of  everything  I  cling  to  the  hope  that  the  sup- 
port at  present  undoubtedly  given  to  the  German  cause  by 
our  German-American  citizens  is  a  temporary  manifesta- 
tion of  the  strength  of  the  ties  of  blood,  and  that  they  as  a 
class  are  not  fitly  represented  by  their  present  spokesmen. 
I  cannot  believe  that,  however  they  may  have  been  influ- 
enced by  heredity,  by  the  poisonous  teachings  of  the  Bern- 
hardis  and  Treitschkes  and  by  the  flamboyant  but  spurious 
patriotism  of  the  Miinsterbergs  and  Bidders  and  Hil- 
prechts,  they  will  permanently  espouse  a  cause  which  is 
based  upon  the  idea  that  "there  is  na  room  in  Germany  for 
a  president"  for  the  reason  that  "the  idea  of  a  president  is 
that  he  draws  his  power  from  the  will  of  millions  of  indi- 
viduals." It  must  be  impossible  that  the  kindly,  sociable 
and  lovable  friends  I  have  among  the  Germans  here  and 
abroad,  can  subscribe  to  the  ethics  of  the  Kaiser  as  ex- 
pressed to  the  German  soldiers  despatched  to  China  in 
1900  : 

"When  you  meet  the  foe  you  will  defeat  him.  No  quarter 
will  be  given,  no  prisoners  will  be  taken.  Let  all  who  fall 
into  your  hands  be  at  your  mercy.  Just  as  the  Huns,  a  thou- 
sand years  ago,  under  the  leadership  of  Etzel  (Attila),  gained 
a  reputation,  in  virtue  of  which  they  still  live  in  historical 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  189 

tradition,  so  may  the  name  of  Germany  become  known  in  such 
a  manner  in  China  that  no  Chinaman  will  ever  again  even 
dare  to  look  askance  at  a  German."  (89) 

The  reference  to  Attila  was  commonly  suppressed,  but 
the  rest  of  the  quotation  was  circulated  on  postcards 
throughout  Germany.  (90) 

Two  days  later  the  modern  Attila  preached  a  sermon  on 
board  the  Hohenzol'lern.  (91) 

I  may,  of  course,  be  mistaken,  but  until  the  mistake  is 
demonstrated  I  do  not  intend  to  include  in  my  condemna- 
tion of  the  present  "German-American"  attitude  any  but 
those  who  have  publicly  put  themselves  on  record.  As  for 
them,  they  should  abandon  the  pretense  of  being  even 
"hyphenated"  Americans. 


CHAPTEE  X. 

What  is  the  Extent  and  What  Are  the  Aims  of  the  Organized 
German  Propaganda  in  America? 

For  the  last  four  or  five  months  the  country  has  been 
showered  with  pro-German  pamphlets,  leaflets,  speeches, 
addresses,  newspaper  and  magazine  articles  and  political 
tracts.  It  has  been  argued  with  and  lied  to.  It  has  been 
coaxed,  fawned  upon,  wheedled,  flattered,  cajoled,  impor- 
tuned, bullied,  and  threatened.  For  example: 

"A  mixed  audience  of  G'erman- Americans  and  Irish- Ameri- 
cans, who  packed  Terrace  Garden  to-night  at  a  meeting  called 
by  the  New  York  Irish  Volunteer  Committee,  cheered  to  the 
echoes  the  name  of  the  Kaiser,  hissed  the  New  York  newspapers, 
but  did  not  cheer  when  the  Stars  and  Stripes  and  the  Govern- 
ment at  Washington  were  mentioned. 

"Wild  applause  followed  when  one  of  the  speakers  said  that 
'a  union  of  the  20,000,000  German-Americans  and  13,000,000 
Irish-Americans  in  the  United  States  would  make  it  easily 
possible  to  change  the  attitude  of  the  newspapers  and  the 
Federal  Government  toward  Germany  and  the  German  cause.' 

"The  principal  speaker  of  the  evening  was  Dr.  Kuno  Meyer, 
of  the  University  of  Berlin,  who  has  been  in  this  country 
several  weeks  lecturing  and  speaking  in  behalf  of  Ger- 
many. .  .  . 

"The  programme  opened  and  ended  with  music,  but  'The 
Star-Spangled  Banner'  was  not  among  the  tunes  played.  Lar- 
kin  was  the  first  speaker.  He  immediately  started  to  denounce 
England.  He  referred  to  John  Redmond  as  a  supporter  of  'the 
blood-stained  flag  of  England/ 

"'There  are  20,000,000  German- Americans  and  13,000,000 
Irish-Americans  in  the  United  States,'  Larkin  shouted,  'and  if 
you  act  together  you  can  make  the  United  States  and  the  news- 
(190) 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  191 

papers  do  as  you  like.    I  am  not  a  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
and  if  they  want  to  deport  me  to-morrow  they  can  do  it."  ( 92 ) 

In  a  report  of  the  same  meeting  another  paper   (93) 
says : 

"When  the  'Wacht  am  Rhein'  was  played  by  the  orchestra, 
Joseph  P.  Sheridan,  Jr.,  who  was  reporting  the  meeting  for  the 
New  York  City  News  Association,  was  attacked  by  the  First 
Lieutenant  of  the  Irish  Volunteers,  who  jabbed  him  in  the 
stomach  several  times  with  the  sheathed  end  of  his  sabre  be- 
cause Sheridan  did  not  consider  it  his  duty  to  stand  up.  .  .  . 

"In  Sheridan's  own  account  of  the  assault  made  upon  him, 
as  sent  out  by  the  New  York  City  News  Association,  he  said  that 
he  was  busy  writing  when  he  was  suddenly  struck  with  the 
sword,  the  Irish  Volunteer  Lieutenant  who  struck  him  shout- 
ing: 

"  'Stand  up,  you  scoundrel!'  " 

Commenting  on  this  shameful  incident,  still  another 
New  York  paper  (94),  says  editorially: 

"No  friend  of  England  or  France,  no  sympathizer  with  Bel- 
gium will  protest  if  Professor  Kuno  Meyer,  of  the  University 
of  Berlin,  and  'Jim'  Larkin,  of  the  docks  of  Dublin,  continue 
each  night  to  give  further  -spectacles  of  a  fusion  between  Kultur 
and  Anarchy,  such  as  they  supplied  in  Terrace  Garden  last 
night. 

"Any  regret,  protest,  distress  that  such  spectacles  produce 
must  come  from  Germans  and  their  friends  who  realize  how 
completely  fatal  to  their  own  cause  are  such  incidents,  such 
insults  to  American  colleges,  newspapers,  public  opinion. 

Do  these  agents  seriously  believe  that  they  can  make  Ameri- 
cans Pro-German  by  becoming  Anti-American  themselves?" 

The  following  day,  in  continuance,  and  speaking  of  Dr. 
Meyer,  the  same  paper  said:  (95) 


192  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"It  is  regrettable  that  he  is  not  now  among  us>  as  an  exponent 
of  learning,  that  he  is  now  infesting  this  neutral  country  as  a 
passionate  alien,  seeking  to  inflame  partisans  of  Germany.  It 
is  particularly  sad  to  see  so  distinguished  a  victim  of  the  epi- 
demic furor  professoritis. 

"It  appears  from  the  Berlin  professor's  remarks  at  the  Ter- 
race Garden  last  Thursday  night  that  his  engagement  to  lecture 
at  Harvard  was  cancelled  because  the  president  of  that  uni- 
versity, having  read  the  address  to  be  delivered,  decided  that  'it 
would  violate  the  spirit  of  neutrality  which  this  country  is 
trying  to  maintain/  which  Professor  Meyer  is  resolved  that  it 
shall  not  maintain.  It  is  easy  to  believe  that  Professor  Meyer 
cannot  keep  King  George's  head  out  of  his  remarks;  but  he 
conceives  that  freedom  of  speech  has  been  trampled  upon  at 
Cambridge : 

"  'I  could  not  live  or  breathe  in  an  atmosphere  so  close  and 
dense  as  that  which  seems  to  prevail  at  Harvard.  Free  utter- 
ance between  man  and  man  has  always  been  the  breath  of  my 
nostrils.' 

"No  considerations  of  propriety  or  politeness  or  respect  for 
a  neutral  country  occur  to  him.  He  assumes  that  academic 
freedom  is  violated  because  he  cannot  inject  his  political  venom 
into  a  literary  speech. 

"How  much  freedom  of  speech  would  he  enjoy  at  Berlin. if 
he  tried  to  incite  an  audience,  say  of  Poles  and  Jews,  to  ally 
themselves  against  a  Government  friendly  to  the  German  Em- 
pire, against,  say,  'the  blood-stained  flag  of  Austria'?  What 
would  the  Prussian  police  have  had  to  say  to  such  a  demonstra- 
tion as  that  of  Terrace  Garden? 

"He  must  have  breathed  asthmatically  at  this  Clan-na-Gael- 
Germau-American  riot,  where  a  reporter  was  prodded  divers 
times  with  a  sheathed  sabre  by  a  lieutenant  of  Irish  Volunteers 
for  not  rising  with  due  observance  and  reverence  when  the 
* Wacht  am  Rhein,'  apparently  the  new  American  anthem,  was 
struck  up. 

"There's  'freedom*  for  you.  In  Berlin  the  sabre  would  not 
have  been  sheathed." 

It  is  a  source  of  contentment  that  the  vast  majority  of  • 
the  press  and  a  similar  proportion  of  the  Intelligent  people 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  193 

— in  whose  hands  the  destinies  of  America  will  ultimately 
rest — have  remained  unshaken  in  their  belief  in  the  justice 
and  right  of  the  cause  of  the  Allies,  which  belief  they 
reached  within  a  fortnight  of  the  opening  of  the  war.  That 
they  have  thus  steadfastly  believed.,  in  spite  of  the  absence 
of  any  inspiring  and  steadying  leadership  from  the  present 
national  Administration,  and  in  the  face  of  so  widespread, 
vigorous,  artful  and  unscrupulous  a  pro-German  and  anti- 
British  campaign,  is  a  legitimate  cause  of  pride,  and  of 
confidence  in  the  underlying  common-sense  of  the  Amer- 
ican people. 

Nevertheless,  some  of  us  have  felt  anxious  as  to  the 
possible  effect  upon  the  millions  who,  somewhat  removed 
from  the  main  currents  and  counter-currents  of  world- 
thought,  have  been  day  by  day,  or  week  by  week,  bombarded 
with  German  sophisms  and  German  sermons,  German  half- 
truths,  and  German  falsehoods. 

There  are  in  the  United  States  great  numbers  of  news- 
papers that  may,  without  derogation,  be  called  "provincial" 
or  "country."  As  a  rule,  they  are  a  source  of  strength  and 
a  means  of  education.  Their  editors  are  often  the  leaders  of 
thought  in  their  respective  communities.  Their  teachings, 
while,  of  course,  varying  widely  as  to  political  questions, 
and  representing  opposite  sides  of  political  controversies, 
are,  as  a  rule,  devoted  to  the  fundamental  principles  of  true 
Democracy,  as  we  understand  it  in  America.  Their  owners 
or  proprietors,  who  are  often  the  editors  themselves,  are 
compelled  to  be  satisfied  with  very  moderate  financial 
returns  for  their  labors.  They  are,  to  an  extent,  like 
teachers  and  professors,  obliged  to  find  in  certain  collateral 
advantages — the  dignity  of  their  profession,  the  influence 
they  can  exert,  the  social  position  they  acquire — a  counter- 
balancing recompense  for  their  meagre  earnings. 

13 


194  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

To  these  papers  have  been  sent,  by  the  thousands,  pages 
of  matter— technically  known  as  "patent  insides"- 
already  put  in  journalistic  form,  together  with  papier- 
mache  moulds  (from  which  type  may  be  easily  and  inex- 
pensively cast) — the  so-called  "boiler-plate" — all  abso- 
lutely without  cost  to  the  papers,  but  with  the  fixed  proviso 
that  the  stuff  thus  sent  shall  be  used  "entire  or  not  at  all." 
A  facsimile  of  one  page  of  such  proffered  material,  actually 
sent  to  a  Philadelphia  paper,  is  herewith  given  together 
with  its  translation. 

For  the  arguments  which  the  Germans  based  on  this  and 
other  documents  found  at  the  same  time,  and  the  replies 
thereto  see  p.  124. 

What  the  effect  may  be  ultimately  upon  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  persons  thus  reached  no  one  now  can  accu- 
rately determine.  The  resulting  change  of  view,  if  there 
were  any,  would  be  slow  in  manifesting  itself.  But  the 
possibility  of  such  change  cannot  be  denied  or  ignored,  and 
it  is  a  grave  question  whether  the  Allies,  or  their  friends 
here,  are  wise  in  regarding  this  persistent  and  continuous 
effort  as  entirely  negligible. 

I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  advice  of  Charles  Francis 
Adams  to  his  English  Friends,  and  to  England,  (96) 

"As  respects  the  war  and  the  attitude  of  Great  Britain,  the 
situation  is  very  clearly  understood  in  America,  and  the  cur- 
rent of  public  opinion  isi  all  one  way,  and  in  your  favor.  You 
can  safely  leave  the  course  of  events  and  the  trend  of  opinion 
to  the  representative  Germans  in  this  country,  including  more 
especially  the  Ambassador  at  Washington,  von  Bernstorff,  who 
strikes  me  as  being  utterly  unfit  for  his  position.  He  has 
done  the  German  cause  immense  harm,  and  brought  himself  into 
great  discredit.  This,  by  indiscreet  and  unnecessary  talking. 
The  man  apparently  does  not  realize  that  foreign  nations  do 


FACSIMILE  OF  A  PAGE  OF  "BOILER-PLATE" — MATRIX — SENT  TO  AMERICAN  NEWSPAPER 
BY  THE  "GERMAN  INFORMATION  SERVICE." 

(over) 


GERMAN  CIRCULAR  LETTER. 

With  the  matrix  (or  "mats")  goes  in  each  case  a  circular 
letter.  In  this  instance  it  was  as  follows : 

"To  THE  EDITORS — The  mats  inclosed  are  facsimiles  of  papers 
found  among  the  documents  of  the  Belgian  General  Staff  at  Brus- 
sels, referring  to  arrangement  between  the  English  military 
attaches  and  the  Belgian  Minister  of  War  regarding  British 
intervention  in  Belgium. 

"They  are  accompanied  by  proofs  of  translations  of  the  docu- 
ments and  by  the  explanatory  remarks  of  Dr.  Bernhard  Dernburg, 
Privy  Councillor  of  the  German  Empire  and  former  German  Min- 
ister to  the  Colonies. 

''The  mats  and  articles  must  be  used  in  their  entirety,  or  not 
at  all. 

"GERMAN  INFORMATION  SERVICE." 

TRANSLATION  OF   FACSIMILE  SENT  THEREWITH. 

"Confidential: 

"The  British  Military  Attache  asked  to  see  General  Jungbluth. 
The  two  gentlemen  met  on  April  23rd. 

"Lieutenant-Colonel  Bridges  told  the  General  that  England  had 
at  her  disposal  an  army  which  could  be  sent  to  the  Continent, 
composed  of  six  divisions  of  infantry  and  eight  brigades  of  cavalry 
— together  160,000  troops.  She  had  also  everything  which  i.s 
necessary  for  her  to  defend  her  insular  territory.  Everything  is 
ready. 

"At  the  time  of  the  recent  events,  the  British  Government 
would  have  immediately  effected  a  disembarkment  in  Belgium 
(ches  nous),  even  if  we  had  not  asked  for  assistance. 

"The  General  objected  that  for  that  our  consent  was  necessary. 

"The  Military  Attache  answered  that  he  knew  this,  but  that 
— since  we  were  not  able  to  prevent  the  Germans  from  passing 
through  our  country — England  would  have  landed  her  troops  in 
Belgium  under  all  circumstances  (en  tout  ('hit  <lc  coaxc). 

"As  for  the  place  of  landing,  the  Military  Attache  did  not  make 
a  precise  statement;  he  said  that  the  coast  \v;is  rather  long,  hut 
the  General  knows  that  Mr.  Bridges,  during  Easter,  has  paid 
daily  visits  to  Zeebrugge  from  Ostende. 

"The  General  added  that  we  were,  besides,  perfectly  able  to 
prevent  the  Germans  from  passing  through." 

/•'or  full  consideration  of  the  charges  based  on  ////'*  and  accom- 
panying documents,  see  pp.  203  to  270. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  195 

not  like  to  be  everlastingly  instructed  as  to  their  obligations, 
their  duties,  and  the  direction  in  which  their  sympathies  should 
go  forth.  They  are  apt  to  think  that,  not  being  wholly  devoid 
of  common  sense,  they  are  competent  to  form  their  own 
opinions.  They  therefore  invariably  resent  the  schoolmaster 
and  the  propagandist.  .  .  . 

"Moreover,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  the  representative 
Germans  over  here  are  doing  the  cause  of  their  'Fatherland/  as 
they  are  pleased  to  call  it,  infinite  injury.  The  sophistries  and 
perversions  of  fact  to  which  they  have  recourse  are  creative  of 
even  more  amusement  than  disgust,  and  that  is  saying  much. 
Under  these  circumstances  you  Englishmen,  so  far  as  America 
is  concerned,  can  safely  leave  well  enough  alone.  The  current 
is  all  running  your  way,  and  the  best  thing  you  can  do  is  to  let 
it  alone.  The  'Scrap  of  Paper*  episode,  the  brutal  violation 
of  Belgian  neutrality,  the  destruction  of  Louvain,  the  bom- 
bardment of  the  cathedral  at  Rheims  Mid  the  job*  here  most 
effectually,  so  far  as  the  Germans  are  concerned.  They  are 
regarded  now  generally  as  a  nation  of  neo-vandals." 

But  even  if  Mr.  Adams  is  right,  and  I  am  disposed  to 
agree  with  him,,  his  advice  does  not,  and  should  not,  apply 
to  Americans  writing  for  Americans. 

That  the  existence  of  an  organized  German  propaganda 
here,  as  well  as  in  other  countries,  is  widely  recognized 
might  be  further  evidenced,  if  any  more  evidence  were 
necessary,  by  hundreds  of  quotations  from  current  periodi- 
cal literature.  The  subjoined  extract  from  an  editorial  in 
an  American  paper  (97)  proceeds,  it  will  be  seen,  on  such 
an  assumption,  and  is  selected  for  use  here,  because  it  gives 
an  interesting  explanation  of  the  apparent  failure  of  the 
pro-Germans  to  influence  American  opinion.  It  is  headed : 
"  'Thinking*  German  and  Other." 

"Maximilian  Harden,  in  his  Berlin  newspaper,  the  Zukunft, 
has  had  the  courage  to  tell  his  countrymen  the  real  reason  why 
the  opinion  of  neutral  nations  bears  so  strongly  against  Ger- 
many. It  is  not,  he  says,  that  'they  are  not  told  the  truth.'  In 


196  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

admitting  this,  Harden  abandons  as  hopeless  the  whole  German 
propaganda  abroad,  especially  in  the  United  States.  It  was 
based  on  the  assumption  that  Americans  had  been  fed  upon  lies, 
and  that  as  soon  as  Germany  should  be  able  to  get  her  case 
before  them,  they  would  at  once  change  their  mind.  This  was 
the  theory  of  campaign  of  the  German  professors',  of  the  indi- 
viduals and  the  associations  in  Germany  that  began  to  flood 
the  American  mail  with  letters  and  publications",  and  of  the 
various  Germans  who,  officially  or  otherwise,  have  undertaken 
the  defense  of  the  German  cause  in  this  country.  That  the 
whole  effort  has  come  to  nothing  is  obvious.  American  opinion 
remains  what  it  was.  Nor  was  it  built  upon  falsehood.  All 
this  mighty  attempt  to  set  us  right  has  not  produced  a  single 
fact,  a  single  document,  a  single  argument  which  was  not  known 
in  the  United  States  from  the  beginning.  The  trouble  was,  aa 
Maximilian  Harden  now  states,  not  that  we  did  not  have  the 
truth,  but  that  we  were  'unable  to  think  as  Germans  do.' 

"This  is  both  frank  and  philosophic.  It  goes  near  to  the  root 
of  the  difficulty.  Something  of  the  same  thought  was  expressed 
by  President  Eliot  at  the  New  England  dinner  when  he  said 
that  the  ideals  of  Germany  were  different  from  those  of  the 
United  States.  We  Americans  cannot  bring  ourselves  to  think, 
in  all  this  matter  of  war,  in  the  terms  which  are  native  to  the 
German  mind.  What  happens  to  an  American  when  he  tries 
to  do  it,  is  rather  pathetically  shown  in  a  little  pamphlet  which 
has  just  reached  us  from  Munich.  It  is  from  the  pen  of  George 
Stuart  Fullerton,  well  known  as  a  professor  of  philosophy  in 
Columbia  University.  He  writes  as  'An  American  to  Ameri- 
cans,' and  entitles  his  pamphlet,  'Why  the  German  Nation  Has 
Gone  to  War.' 

"Now,  will  it  be  believed  that  in  the  entire  production  not  a 
solitary  explanation  is  offered  of  Germany's  reasons  for  going 
to  war.  All  that  Professor  Fullerton  has  done  is  to  give  a 
sympathetic  interpretation  of  German  militarism.  He  knows 
and  loves  the  Germans,  and  seeks  to  make  it  clear  how  it  was 
that  a  peaceable,  scientific,  music-loving  people  should  have 
felt  it  necessary  to  arm  to  the  teeth,  to  become  a  Volk  in 
Waffen.  All  this  is  done  intelligently  and  interestingly,  but 
the  war  itself  is  described  merely  as  'inevitable.'  Professor 
Fullerton  says  in  so  many  words : 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  197 

"  'I  make  no  reference  to  the  neutrality  of  Belgium,  nor  do 
I  think  it  worth  while  to  touch  upon  the  question  who  first 
formally  declared  war  on  this  side  or  on  that.  In  the  light  of 
what  the  world  now  knows,  these  have  become  wholly  trivial 
matters/ 

"But  what  is  all  this  except  a  demonstration  of  the  fact  that 
when  an  American  sets  himself  to  thinking  about  the  war  as  the 
Germans  do,  he  instantly  makes  negligible  what  to  the  Ameri- 
can mind  has  all  along  been  and  to-day  continues  central  and 
vital?" 

The  question  thus  summarized  as  "  Thinking/  Ger- 
man and  Other/'  i.  e.,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  the 
radical  difference  between  the  outlook  on  life  of  the  average 
German  and  that  of  the  average  American,  is  not  to  be 
lightly  dismissed.  Indeed  there  are  Americans  who  con- 
sider it  to  be  the  underlying  factor  of  the  war,  most  worthy 
of  study  and  investigation.  I  subjoin  the  best  summary  of 
this  portion  of  the  German  controversial  output  that  I 
have  seen  (98).  It  also  expresses,  I  believe,  the  impres- 
sion made  upon  this  country  by  current  German  opinion 
as  set  forth  in  their  own  newspapers,  and  intended,  there- 
fore, not  for  American,  but  for  home  consumption. 

"Among  the  great  fundamental  forces  operating  in  the  world 
war  there  is  one  which  completely  overshadows  all  others  in 
importance  and  influence — the  thought,  the  guiding  purpose,  of 
the  German  nation.  No  problem  of  the  mighty  conflict,  whether 
touching  its  beginning,  its  conduct  or  its  conclusion,  can  be 
studied  without  first  taking  into  account  this  factor. 

"What  is  that  thought?  What  is  the  German  viewpoint,  the 
spirit  which  unifies  and  inspires  the  nation  in  its  tremendous 
undertaking  ?  Is  there  an  authentic  voice  of  the  German  people, 
whose  utterance  will  reveal  its  own  authority  and  carry  its 
own  conviction? 

"The  empire  has  not  lacked  spokesmen;  the  flood  of  current 
literature  respecting  Teuton  politics  is  of  astonishing  volume. 


198  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

Names  which  a  few  months  ago  were  known  here  only  to  schol- 
ars or  technical  experts  have  become  household  words. 

"He  is  a  poor  disputant  who  cannot  quote  from  Heinrich  von 
Treitschke,  who  dominated  the  great  Prussian  school  of  his- 
torians; from  Nietzsche,  the  bewildering  philosopher  of  nega- 
tion, whose  influence  has  saturated  German  teaching;  from 
Von  Bernhardi,  the  apostle  of  militarism;  to  say  nothing  of 
Von  Buelow,  diplomatist;  Von  Gwinner,  financier;  Harnack 
and  Dryander,  theologians;  Lamprecht  and  Von  Schmoller, 
political  economists;  Eucken  and  Haeckel,  scientists,  and  a 
score  of  other  noted  leaders. 

"But  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  most  distinguished  of  these 
writers  are  quite  ignored  by  advocates  of  the  German  cause; 
indeed,  they  are  politely  but  firmly  repudiated.  It  is  said  that 
Nietzsche  has  no  considerable  following;  that  General  von 
Bernhardi  is  a  military  jingo  whose  extravagances  were  never 
taken  seriously,  and  the  greatest  of  German  historians  is  gently 
dismissed  by  an  eminent  German- American  in  Philadelphia  as 
*a  man  named  Treitschke.'  So,  for  the  purpose  of  this  discus- 
sion, at  least,  we  shall  not  turn  to  these  familiar  sources  of 
German  interpretation. 

"By  far  the  most  effective  representative  of  the  cause  in 
America  has  been  Dr.  Bernhard  Dernburg,  whose  skill  in  advo- 
cacy is  due  not  only  to  wide  knowledge,  but  to  the  suave  dignity 
of  his  controversial  manner.  That  his  mission  is  authoritative 
ia  not  to  be  doubted,  for  his  appearance  was  a  signal  for  the 
retirement  of  those  industrious  but  rather  inept  champions, 
Professor  Mtinsterberg  and  Ambassador  von  Bernstorff.  But 
Doctor  Dernburg's  writings  are  for  non-German  consumption 
only.  They  present  an  able  defense  of  the  national  aims,  but 
they  do  not  pretend  to  voice  the  inner  sentiments  which  move 
the  people  and  their  rulers.  He  is  an  attorney,  not  an  inter- 
preter. 

"To  get  at  German  thought  to-day,  therefore,  Americans  must 
turn  to  Germany  itself,  to  the  publicists  who  address  their  coun- 
trymen and  not  aliens,  and  the  newspapers  which  make  and  por- 
tray public  opinion  upon  the  issues  of  the  war.  In  citing  char- 
acteristic quotations,  it  will  be  our  purpose  to  offer  only  enough 
editorial  comment  to  serve  as  mortar  between  the  bricks  of 
German  statement  and  argument. 

"Making  a  random  selection,  we  find  Herr  Basserman,  leader 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  199 

of  the  National  Liberals,  outlining  in  a  speech  to  the  Reichstag 
a  popular  view  of  the  policy  toward  Belgium,  France,  and  the 
world  in  general: 

"  'Let  us  retain  all  the  territory  we  already  occupy,  and  also 
what  we  shall  yet  conquer  and  think  necessary  to  keep. 
"Through  bloody  war  to  glorious  victory"  is  our  motto.' 

"In  the  Deutsche  Tageszeitung  an  article  by  a  leading  Berlin 
clergyman  discusses  war  as  a  Christian  duty  in  these  terms : 

"  'Again  and  again  we  read  that  warlike  spirit,  warlike  en- 
thusiasm and  warfare  in  general  are  inconsistent  with  the  spirit 
and  teachings  of  Christianity.  This  view  is  superficial.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Christian  viewpoint,  history  is  guided  by  Him  who 
shapes  the  destinies  of  nations.  For  those  who  believe  this  even 
war  is  the  work  of  God. 

"  'If  this  war  is  permitted  by  God,  then  warfare  is  a  duty. 
.  .  .  Such  a  duty  and  such  fulfillment  are  not  only  consist- 
ent with  Christianity,  but  are  demanded  by  Christianity.' 

"Hermann  Sudermann,  the  noted  dramatist,  assures  his 
countrymen  that  'the  "alleged"  violation  of  Belgium's  neu- 
trality has  been  proved  to  be  our  legitimate  right/  and  there- 
fore is  able  to  urge  solemnly: 

"  'German  militarism  can  never  be  misused  for  desires  to 
attack  and  to  conquer,  and  is  only  thinkable  as  an  instrument 
of  defense.' 

"In  Dos  Frei  Wort,  a  Frankfort  review,  Count  von  Hoens- 
broech  argues  that  Belgium  must  not  be  annexed.  Justice  and 
the  imperial  designs  would  be  served,  he  says,  upon  these  easy 
terms : 

"  'All  Belgian  fortresses,  except  Antwerp,  to  be  razed ;  Ant- 
werp to  have  a  German  garrison;  the  Belgian  monarchy  to  be 
replaced  by  German  regents;  the  Belgian  parliament  to  be  re- 
stricted to  economic  matters;  payment  by  Belgium  of  a  "for- 
midable" war  indemnity  and  a  yearly  tribute;  abolition  of  the 
Belgian  army;  cession  of  the  Congo  colony;  Belgium's  diplo- 
matic affairs  to  be  handled  by  German  consuls  and  ministers.' 

"A  few  weeks  ago  Dr.  Adolf  Lasson,  an  imperial  privy  coun- 
cilor, wrote  to  a  prominent  Hollander  a  letter  in  which  he  said : 

"  'Foreigner  means  enemy.  No  one  can  remain  neutral  to  the 
German  State  and  people.  A  man  who  is  not  a  German  knows 
nothing  of  Germany.  We  are  morally  and  intellectually  superior 
beyond  all  comparison  as  to  our  organizations  and  institutions. 


200  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

.     .     .     We  Germans  have  no  friends  anywhere,  because  we  are 
efficient  and  morally  superior  to  all.' 

"Major  General  von  Disfurth,  in  the  Hamburg  Ncwhtrichten, 
thus  answers  complaints  against  German  war  methods: 

"  'Frankly,  we  are  and  must  be  barbarians,  if  by  this  we  un- 
derstand those  who  wage  war  relentlessly  and  to  the  uttermost 
degree.  We  owe  no  explanations  to  anyone.  Every  act  of  what- 
ever nature  committed  by  our  troops  for  the  purpose  of  dis- 
couraging, defeating  and  destroying  our  enemies  is  a  brave  act 
and  a  good  deed.  Our  troops  must  achieve  victory.  What  else 
matters  ?' 

"Doctor  Lenard,  a  member  of  the  faculty  at  Heidelberg,  is 
quoted  in  the  Hamburger  Fremderiblatt  in  these  words: 

"  'Down  with  all  consideration  for  England's  so-called  cul- 
ture !  The  central  nest  and  supreme  academy  for  all  hypocrisy 
in  the  world,  London,  must  be  destroyed.  No  respect  for  the 
tombs  of  Shakespeare,  Newton  and  Faraday!' 

"Dr.  Friedrich  Naumann,  editor  of  Hilfe  (Berlin),  thus 
frankly  disposes  of  the  neutrality  issue: 

"  'Even  assuming  that  there  had  been  in  Belgium  an  honor- 
able sentiment  of  neutrality,  the  question  remains  whether  a 
small  individual  State  can  have  a  right  to  stand  aside  from  a 
historical  process  of  reconstruction.  .  .  .  However  friendly 
and  sympathetic  one's  attitude  may  be  toward  the  wishes  of 
neutrals,  one  cannot,  in  principle,  admit  their  right  to  stand 
aside  from  the  general  processes  of  centralization  in  the  leader- 
ship of  humanity.  In  economics  we  constantly  see  small  con- 
cerns trying  to  remain  outside  the  trusts.  Often  they  succeed, 
often  they  do  not.  The  same  thing  happens  also  in  the  sphere 
of  world  politics.' 

"Maximilian  Harden  is  called  the  Bernard  Shaw  of  Germany. 
But  while  his  literary  agility  suggests  that  of  the  Irish  drama- 
tist, his  genius  is  of  infinitely  greater  brilliance,  and  his  popular 
influence  was  proved  when  he  smashed  a  corrupt  ring  that  had 
its  headquarters  in  the  very  palace  of  the  Kaiser.  Let  him 
answer  those  who  plead  that  war  was  forced  on  Germany : 

"'Cease  the  pitiful  attempts  to  excuse  Germany's  action. 
.  .  .  Not  as  weak-willed  blunderers  have  we  undertaken  the 
fearful  risk  of  this  war.  We  willed  it,  because  we  had  to  will  it 
and  could  will  it.  May  the  Teuton  devil  throttle  those  whiners 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  201 

whose  pleas  for  excuses  make  us  ludicrous  in  these  hours  of 
lofty  experience ! 

"  'We  do  not  stand,  and  shall  not  place  ourselves,  before  the 
court  of  Europe.  Our  power  shall  create  new  law  in  Europe. 
Germany  strikes!  If  she  conquers  new  realms  for  her  genius, 
the  priesthood  of  all  the  gods  will  sing  songs  of  praise  to  the 
good  war. 

"  'Do  not  lapse  into  dreamsi  about  the  "United  States  of 
Europe."  .  .  .  To  the  Belgians  we  are  the  arch-imp  and  the 
tenant  of  the  pool  of  hell.  We  would  remain  so,  even  if  every 
stone  in  Louvain  and  in  Malines  were  replaced  by  its  equivalent 
in  gold.' 

"The  Deutsche  Tageszeitunff,  in  a  long  editorial,  demands  that 
German  shall  replace  English  as  the  world  language,  so  as  to 
end  the  'fearful  brutalizing  influences'  that  appear  'in  every 
land  where  the  English  language  is  spoken.' 

"In  the  vocabulary  of  the  Berliner  Tagebldtt,  the  Japanese 
are  'yellow  Britons'  and  'the  monkey  relatives  of  Sir  Edward 
Grey.'  The  Kreuzzeitung  tells  its  readers  that  British  soldiers 
go  to  war  'without  any  thought  except  of  shillings  with  which 
to  purchase  whisky.'  Here  is  a  glimpse  of  the  popular  mind 
respecting  the  war: 

"  'We  would  see  every  monument,  every  picture,  utterly  de- 
•stroyed  rather  than  that  the  glorious  work  given  to  the  German 
race  should  be  hindered  by  so  much  as  one  hour's  avoidable  de- 
lay. The  world  can  be  revitalized,  society  ennobled  and  refined, 
only  through  the  German  spirit.  The  world  must,  for  its  own 
salvation,  be  Germanized.' 

"From  the  Frankfurter  Zeitung: 

"'Belgium,  uselessly  tortured  and  befooled  by  meaningless 
treaties  and  promises,  is  done  with.  Its  ministers  are  still  talk- 
ing of  victory,  and  even  of  a  greater  Belgium,  but  these  are 
mere  words  of  intoxication.' 

"It  is  from  such  passages  in  the  common  literature  of  the  day, 
rather  than  from  writings  of  historians  and  philosophers,  that 
one  may  derive  an  idea  of  popular  German  thought.  There  is 
a  concentrated  fury  in  its  expression  which  is  very  striking;  it 
is  as  if  the  words  half  strangled  those  who  seek  to  utter  them. 

"With  characteristic  efficiency  the  Germans  have  classified 
and  named  this  spirit.  They  call  it  the  'furor  Germanicus/ 
and  exult  that  it  is  so  widespread  and  powerful.  This,  far 


202  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

more  than  the  ambitious  designs  of  statesmen,  is  the  ruling 
force  in  the  war;  it  is  this,  rather  than  howitzers  and  subma- 
rines, that  has  withstood  the  might  of  Germany's  enemies  and 
may  change  the  course  of  civilization." 

The  peculiarity  of  present-day  German  mental  processes 
is  also  held  up  to  scorn  in  the  following  editorial:  (99) 

"Among  other  documents  lavishly  distributed  to  the  Ameri- 
can public  by  the  energetic  German  Press  Bureau  is  a  quarterly 
'War  Chronicle,'  containing  arguments  and  exhibits  to  prove  the 
justice  of  the  German  cause,  letters  from  soldiers  at  the  front 
and  pictures  of  British  warships  and  other  objects  destroyed 
on  sea  or  land.  Not  the  least  interesting  feature  of  the  latest 
issue  is  a  map  of  Louvain  intended  to  show  the  exact  damage 
done  to  the  city.  The  'unshaded  and  undamaged  portion*  has 
an  impressive  look  until  examination  reveals  the  fact  that  it 
does  not  include  the  center  of  the  city,  where  naturally  the 
worst  destruction  was  wrought.  It  is  as  if  Philadelphia  from 
the  City  Hall  to  Independence  Square  had  been  wrecked;  the 
area  would  seem  small  on  a  map  of  the  whole  city,  but  the 
injury  would  be  none  the  less  appalling. 

"The  inscription  under  this  map  of  Louvain — 'The  lined  por- 
tion only  was  damaged  in  the  fight  forced  upon  us' — is  the 
chief  matter  of  psychological  interest,  because  it  illustrates  so 
aptly  the  curious  working  of  the  German  mind.  After  all  the 
absolute  evidence  to  the  contrary,  Belgium  in  the  r6le  of  agent 
provocateur  remains  an  ineradicable  obsession.  And  on  the 
principle  so  lucidly  laid  down  in  'The  Hunting  of  the  Snark,' 
that  'what  I  tell  you  three  times  is  true/  Germany  goes  on 
presenting  her  case  to  the  world  as  if  this  evidence  did  not 
exist.  'The  fight  forced  upon  us!'  Does  the  idea  still  persist 
at  Berlin  that  Americans  are  fools  enough  to  believe  that?" 

It  would  seem  quite  incredible  to  Americans  that  any 
attempt  to  secure  newspaper  support  on  a  large  scale  by 
bribery  would  be  made,  or  if  made,,  could  be  successful. 

But  Anton  Oskar  Klaussmann,  in  Der  Turmer  (Stutt- 
gart) attributes  the  general  dislike  for  Germany  to  system- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  203 

atic  bribing  of  the  foreign  press.  He  includes  us  in  his 
theory,  which  is  apparently  that  all  papers — except  those  of 
Germany — have  been  bribed,  or  are  bribable.  He  says : 
(100) 

"  'This  misuse  of  the  foreign  press  against  us  is  part  of  the 
policy  of  the  Iron  Ring — England,  France,  and  Russia.  They 
have  systematically  depreciated  us  in  the  eyes  of  the  world. 
They  have  "influenced"  the  foreign  press.  The  almighty  rouble, 
the  world-conquering  pound  sterling,  and  the  French  franc  have 
created  accomplices,  and  for  decades  everything  unpleasant  that 
has  happened  anywhere  in  the  world  has  been  laid  at  our  door 
by  the  press.  This  German-baiting  has  been  conducted  at  the 
expense  of  reason  and  logic.  They  have  charged  us  with  things 
so  senseless  and  foolish  that  one  would  have  thought  that  even 
a  half-witted  person  would  be  able  to  see  the  fallacies.' 

"In  spite  of  all  the  absurdities  of  the  campaign  against  Ger- 
many's virtues,  the  writer  acknowledges  that  it  has  been  a  suc- 
cess, and  proceeds  to  take  the  Government  to  task  for  not 
having  initiated  a  counter-campaign  of  press-  bribery: 

"  'To  be  sure  it  would  have  cost  millions  to  influence  the  for- 
eign papers,  for  we  should  have  had  to  bid  higher  than  our  ene- 
mies. But  these  millions  would  not  have  been  wasted;  they 
would  have  proved  an  excellent  investment  when  that  dark  plot 
against  us  was  hatched,  and  we  found  out,  with  despair,  that 
we  had  not  a  friend  left  in  the  world.  We  should  not  have  had 
to  bear  those  hours  of  anxiety  when  we  saw  our  so-called 
friends  in  America,  in  Sweden,  in  Denmark,  in  Spain,  in  Rou- 
mania,  and  in  Italy  overwhelming  us  with  accusations  and  cry- 
ing out  to  heaven  that  we  had  broken  the  peace,  that  our  ra- 
pacity alone  had  caused  the  war.' 

"Now  that  the  war  has  started,  he  thinks  it  is  a  waste  of 
time  to  attempt  to  influence  the  hostile  papers,  but  he  notes 
with  some  satisfaction  that  the  powers  in  Berlin  are  no  longer 
blind  to  the  advantages  accruing  from  a  friendly  press  and 
have  taken  steps  to  insure  support  in  certain  quarters: 

"'What  a  hostile  attitude  was  assumed  by  certain  Italian 
papers  during  the  early  days  of  the  war!  In  Berlin  the  names 
of  these  papers  that  suddenly  dropped  their  hatred  of  Germany 
and  wrote  in  our  favor  are  well  known,  and  it  is  quite  under- 


204  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

stood  here  that  an  ass  with  a  load  of  gold  has  climbed  over  the 
wall  of  hatred  for  Germany.' " 

This  is  most  interesting  and  instructive.  It  seems  to 
him  impossible  that  the  world  generally  could  have  disre- 
garded German  claims  to  world-power,  disapproved  of  Ger- 
man ideals,  and  disliked  German  methods  and  measures, 
unless  it  had  been  influenced  to  do  so  by  a  venal  press.  Of 
course  his  view  is  confirmatory  of  all  that  has  been  said 
of  German  megalomania  and  of  German  insolence  and 
stupidity  also.  Anything,  to  them,  is  believable  rather 
than  that,  on  her  merits,  Germany  should  be  widely  and 
spontaneously  disliked. 

For  a  further  and  more  detailed  illustration  of  the 
German-American  methods,  let  me  instance  the  case  of  the 
three  Congressmen — with  the  apparently  pertinent  names 
of  Bartholdt,  Vollmer  and  Lobeck — who,  the  evidence 
ehows,  first  tried  to  secure  aid  for  Germany  by  the  trans- 
parent device  of  prohibiting  the  sale  of  munitions  of  war 
to  any  belligerent;  and  who  next  undertook  to  fool  the 
House  of  Eepresentatives  as  to  the  German  citizenship  law. 

Mr.  Maurice  Leon,  of  New  York,  has  ably  and  vigorously 
dealt  with  this  matter.  He  characterizes  the  legislation 
proposed  by  these  Congressmen — forbidding  all  shipments 
to  belligerents — as  such  an  unequivocal  espousal  of  Ger- 
many's interests  as  to  call  for  immediate  exposure,  inas- 
much as  publicity  in  such  important  matters  affects  the 
vital  interests  and  even  the  permanent  safety  of  the  Amer- 
ican people.  He  gives  his  views  of  the  activities  of  Con- 
gressmen of  German  descent  as  follows:  (101) 

"Representatives  Bartholdt,  Loheck  and  Vollmer,  when  they 
speak  of  forcing  an  end  to  the  war  hy  cutting  off  all  supplies 
from  belligerents,  know  well  that  no  supplies  in  any  case  can 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  205 

reach  Germany.     Therefore,  by  'belligerents'  they  mean  'Allies.' 

"This  is  a  characteristic  German  maneuver.  I  have  no  doubt 
but  that  these  three  Congressmen  are  carrying  out  the  ex- 
pressed wishes  of  Count  von  Bernstorff,  the  German  Ambassa- 
dor to  this  country,  and  Dr.  Bernhard  Dernburg,  the  German 
publicist. 

"In  view  of  the  activities  of  Representatives)  Bartholdt,  Lo- 
beck  and  Vollmer,  it  is  important  to  consider  whether  the  alle- 
giance of  these  gentlemen  is  primarily  to  the  United  States  or 
to  Germany.  Their  silence  is  transparent.  They  are  acting  as 
agents  of  the  German  Government  in  Congress.  What  they  do 
dovetails  with  the  activities  of  the  German  Ambassador.  t 

"A  true  explanation  of  the  whole  matter  is  found  in  the 
principle  laid  down  in  the  German  imperial  and  State  citizen- 
ship law,  Article  XXV,  Paragraph  2. 

"This  law  sanctions  the  following  practice:  A  German  desir- 
ing to  exercise  the  franchise  of  this  country  goes  to  the  Ger- 
man Consul  and  from  him  obtains  the  written  consent  of  the 
German  authorities  to  retain  his  German  citizenship  notwith- 
standing his  naturalization. 

"Having  done  that,  he  goes  before  a  court  in  this  country  and 
takes  an  oath  of  allegiance  which,  according  to  our  laws,  requires 
him  expressly  to  forswear  allegiance  to  the  German  Empire. 
But  that  oath  is  not  taken  by  him  in  good  faith.  He  is  not 
engaged  in  reality  in  becoming  an  American  citizen,  but  in  ac- 
quiring the  right  to  use  the  American  franchise  although  re- 
maining a  German  subject. 

"In  this  way  the  German  Government  connives  at  wholesale 
deception  of  the  American  Government  and  does  so  with  the 
sanction  of  a  law  duly  adopted  by  the  Reichstag  and  bearing  the 
signature  of  the  German  Emperor. 

"The  attitude  of  mind  which  this  situation  has  engendered 
is  admirably  illustrated  by  two  recent  articles  of  Dr.  Dernburg. 
In  the  current  issue  of  the  North  American  Revieiv  he  shows 
Germany  in  the  attitude  of  injured  innocence  protesting  that 
she  has  nothing  to  gain  and  wishes  to  gain  nothing  by  the  war, 
while  in  the  Independent  for  December  7th  Dr.  Dernburg  dis- 
cusses the  terms  upon  which  Germany  would  make  peace,  men- 
tioning that  Germany  merely  wants  the  Baltic  provinces!,  Ant- 
werp (which  Dr.  Dernburg,  although  formerly  a  Colonial  Sec- 
retary, locates  on  the  Rhine),  customs  control  of  Belgium, 


206  A  TEXT-BOOR  OP  THE  WAR 

Morocco,  a  sphere  of  influence  in  Asia  Minor  from  the  Persian 
Gulf  to  the  Dardanelles  and,  as  presents  to  Germany's  friends, 
Egypt  for  Turkey  and  Finland  for  Sweden. 

"If  it  is  the  same  Dr.  Dernburg  who  writes  both  of  these 
articles,  he  must  have  a  dual  personality  comparable  to  the  dual 
nationality  of  the  German-Americans  represented  by  Herr 
Bartholdt,  Herr  Lobeck  and  Herr  Vollmer." 

This  publication  was  met  by  vociferous  denial  from  the 
Congressmen  concerned,  the  character  of  which  is  suffi- 
ciently explained  by  Mr.  Leon's  further  reply:  (102) 

"All  the  vituperation  of  Messrs.  Bartholdt,  Vollmer  and  Lo- 
beck will  avail  them  nothing.  Such  epithets  as  'liar*  and 
'scoundrel,'  which  they  find  it  convenient  to  utter  in  the  shelter 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  have  become  a  sort  of  Iron 
Cross  which  Pan-Germans  bestow  upon  their  opponents,  and 
which  are  gratefully  accepted  as  such.  It  is  amazing  to  find 
that  these  Pan-Germans  in  Congress  have  been  driven  to  such 
desperate  devices  as  actually  to  try  to  deceive  the  House  of 
Representatives  concerning  the  tenor  and  effect  of  the  German 
citizenship  law.  The  text  of  that  law,  which  was  adopted  by 
the  Reichstag  and  Bundesrath  and  signed  on  July  22,  1913,  by 
the  German  Emperor  at  Balholm  on  board  the  yacht  Hohenzol- 
lern,  is  found  in  the  supplement  of  the  American  Journal  of 
International  Law  of  July,  1914.  Paragraph  2  in  Article  XXV 
of  that  law  reads  as  follows: 

"  'Citizenship  is  not  lost  by  one  who,  before  acquiring  foreign 
citizenship,  has  secured  on  application  the  written  consent  of 
the  competent  authorities  of  his  home  State  to  retain  his  citi- 
zenship. Before  this  consent  is  given  the  German  Consul  is  to 
be  heard.' 

"That  same  law  has  provisions  whereby  one  who,  like  Mr. 
Vollmer,  was  born  in  Iowa  of  a  German  father,  may  secretly 
contract  German  allegiance  without  establishing  a  German 
residence.  These  provisions  are  contained  in  Article  XIII,  sanc- 
tioning the  re-Germanization  of  'a  former  German  who  has  not 
taken  up  his  residence  in  Germany,'  with  the  proviso:  'The  same 
applies  to  one  who  is  descended  from  a  former  German  or  has 
been  adopted  as  a  child  of  such.' 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  207 

"There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  law  merely  sanctioned  an 
existing  practice.  Now  these  Congressmen  even  deny  the  exist- 
ence of  such  a  law. 

"According  to  the  newspapers  Mr.  Bartholdt  made  yesterday 
the  following  statement  concerning  the  effect  of  that  law: 

"  'The  facts  are  simply  these :  Germany,  like  every  other 
country,  has  a  law  which  makes  it  possible  for  those  who  are 
away  from  the  Fatherland  to  retain  their  citizenship  by  report- 
ing within  ten  years  to  a  German  Consul,  but  when  so  reporting 
they  must  make  oath  that  they  have  not  acquired  or  taken  steps 
to  acquire  citizenship  in  any  other  country.' 

"Let  unhyphenated  Americans  compare  Mr.  Bartholdt's  words 
with  the  words  of  the  law  and  judge  for  themselves  whether  Mr. 
Bartholdt  was  or  was*  not  endeavoring  to  deceive  his  colleagues 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  concerning  a  matter  of  vital 
consequence  to  the  American  Government. 

"Mr.  Bartholdt  makes  a  denial  that  he  has  been  conferring 
with  the  German  Ambassador,  a  charge  that  has  not  been  made, 
but  he  cannot  and  does  not  deny  the  fact  that  his  activities  as  a 
Congressman  dovetail  with  those  of  the  German  Ambassador. 

"The  newspapers  have  published  during  the  last  week  items 
to  the  effect  first,  that  the  German  Ambassador  has  charged 
American  manufacturers  with  delivering  dumdum  bullets  to  the 
British  Government  by  the  million;  second,  that  the  American 
manufacturers  named  by  the  German  Ambassador  have  abso- 
lutely denied  that  there  is  any  truth  in  his  assertion  and  have 
invited  him  to  retract  it  or  furnish  proof;  third,  that  the  Ger- 
man Ambassador  replied  that  he  had  the  proof,  but  has  not  fur- 
nished it.  While  this  was  going  on  Representatives  Bartholdt, 
Vollmer  and  Lobeck  were  actually  engaged  in  their  endeavor  to 
line  up  the  German-Americans  behind  the  attempt  to  force 
through  Congress  legislation,  the  effect  of  which  would  be  prac- 
tically to  enlist  the  services  of  the  United  States  as  the  ally  of 
Germany,  Austria  and  Turkey.  It  is  a  fact  of  public  notoriety 
that  in  that  endeavor  they  are  enjoying  the  active  support  of 
Mr.  Viereck,  editor  of  an  organ  which  may  be  regarded  as  the 
mouthpiece  of  an  invisible  government  established  by  Germany 
in  these  United  States  to  rule  over  the  German- American  popu- 
lation, the  head  of  which  is  Mr.  Bernhard  Dernburg,  former 
German  Cabinet  Minister,  now  acting  as  a  sort  of  local  viceroy 


208  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


over  numerous  organizations  in  this  country  embraced  in  the 
Deutsche  Americanische  Verbund." 


The  following  editorial  (103)  on  the  question  of  Ger- 
man-American Citizenship,"  is  representative  of  the  feel- 
ing of  all  real  Americans.  After  noting  that  under  certain 
circumstances  a  German  may  obtain  citizenship  in  a 
foreign  country  without  forefeiting  his  citizenship  in  Ger- 
many, and  re-quoting  the  law  of  July,  1913,  it  continues : 

"There  is  no  question  of  Germany's  entire  competence  and 
right  to  make  this  arrangement  for  her  sons  domiciled  in  for- 
eign lands.  The  conservation  of  her  political  interests  is  a 
matter  for  her  own  wisdom  and  prevision.  But  the  effect  of 
siuch  a  law  on  the  citizenship  of  this  country  is  a  subject  that 
must  engage  our  earnest  study,  and  if  necessary  cause  the  re- 
vision of  our  naturalization  system  to  prevent  the  erection 
within  our  citizenship  of  a  class  of  fraudulently  hyphenated 
Americans  unlike  any  heretofore  existing. 

"Under  our  liberal  practice  an  invitation  is  given  to  all  men 
of  good  disposition  to  acquire  citizenship.  The  alien,  on  filing 
his  declaration,  must  take  oath  that  it  is  bona  fide  his  intention 
to  become  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  and  to  renounce  for- 
ever all  allegiance  and  fidelity  to  any  foreign  State  or  ruler, 
and  particularly  to  that  one  of  which  he  may  be  a  citizen  or 
subject.  Similarly,  on  the  application  for  admission  the  alien 
must  make  oath  that: 

"  'He  will  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and 
that  he  absolutely  and  entirely  renounces  and  abjures  all  alle- 
giance and  fidelity  to  every  foreign  prince,  potentate,  State  or 
sovereignty;  and  particularly,  by  name,  to  the  prince,  poten- 
tate, State  or  sovereignty  of  which  he  was  before  a  citizen  or 
subject.' 

"It  will  be  seen  that  this  oath  is  as  searching  and  inclusive 
as  it  well  could  be.  The  renunciation  is  forever,  absolute  and 
entire.  No  provision  is  made  for  a  temporary  or  limited  re- 
nunciation; the  possibility  of  a  dual  citizenship,  or  subject- 
citizenship,  is  not  contemplated  by  the  law.  Such  a  division 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  209 

of  loyalty,  such  a  commingling  of  allegiances,  as  the  retention 
of  foreign  citizenship  in  company  with  American  citizenship,  aa 
might  be  accomplished  by  a  German  under  the  terms  of  the  law 
quoted  by  Mr.  Leon,  would  be  repugnant  to  American  institu- 
tions, subversive  of  American  interests  and  against  our  public 
policy. 

"That  an  honorable  man  could  subscribe  to  the  oaths  re- 
quired while  reserving  his  original  citizenship  through  formal 
arrangement  with  his  native  government  is  incredible." 

I  have,  of  course,  had  to  select  one  incident  out  of  many 
to  illustrate  in  detail  the  German  and  German-American 
activity  in  America  at  this  time.  I  chose  this  one  because 
the  three  German- Americans  who  figure  in  it  are  law-mak- 
ers and  legislators  for  the  American  people,  and  because, 
for  that  reason,  their  sayings  and  doings  acquire  an  adven- 
titious interest  quite  apart  from  any  other  claim  they 
might  possess  to  occupy  the  attention  of  the  public. 

The  Courrier  des  Etats  Unis,  of  March  17,  1915,  pub- 
lishes the  subjoined  item: 

"The  Frankfort  Gazette  publishes  the  following  letter  ad- 
dressed to  a  German  lady  by  Mr.  Richard  Bartholdt,  a  member 
of  the  United  States  Congress: 

"Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  Chamber  of  Congress,  United 
States,  Washington,  January  31,  1915. 

"  'Dear  Madam :  My  best  thanks  for  your  letter.  Unfor- 
tunately, I  have  not  the  time  to  inform  you  at  length  upon  the 
situation.  The  German- Americans  are  all  faithful  to  the  old 
country.  For  the  last  five  months  I  have  been  occupied  night 
and  day  in  spreading  the  truth.  Yesterday  took  place  here  a 
conference  of  representatives  of  all  the  German  associations  of 
America.  It  was  the  first  time  that  all  the  Germanic  elements 
in  the  Republic  thus  united  in  one  assembly.  I  was  elected 
president  of  this  central  association. 

"  'We  shall  know  how  to  make  ourselves  heard. 

"  'With  you  I  wish  a  definite  victory  for  Germany  over  per- 
fidious England,  and  beg  you  to  accept,  etc.,  etc. 

14  'RICHARD  BARTHOLDT/  " 


210  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

If  this  is  not  authentic  it  should  obviously  be  promptly 
disavowed.  If  it  is  authentic,  comment  upon  such  a  letter, 
written  on  official  paper,  by  a  member  of  the  House  Com- 
mittee on  Foreign  Affairs,  seems  superfluous.  I  would 
simply  ask  for  the  incident  the  thoughtful  attention  of  all 
Americans. 

The  Mr.  Viereck,  editor  of  the  "Fatherland?  which,  by 
the  way,  is  the  journal  that  objected  to  America's  sending 
food  and  clothing  to  the  starving  and  homeless  Belgians — 
was  also  good  enough  to  suggest  that  we  could  "make  a 
Christmas  present  to  the  world"  by  declining  to  sell  to  the 
Allies  any  munitions  of  war.  Mr.  Viereck  is  dealt  with  as 
follows  (104)  by  a  well-known  American,  Mr.  Horace 
White. 

"The  interview  in  which  Mr.  Viereck,  the  editor  of  the  Ger- 
man paper,  the  Fatherland,  shows  how  the  war  in  Europe 
might  be  brought  to  an  end  in  sixty  days  or  less,  contains  more 
enlightenment  than  appears  on  the  surface.  He  says  that  the 
American  people  can  work  this  miracle  by  stopping  the  sale  of 
arms  and  ammunition  to  the  Allies.  Germany,  having  made 
war,  and  preparations  for  war,  the  chief  concern  of  human  ex- 
istence, is  presumably  well  supplied  with  guns  and  ammunition 
and  manufactories  thereof.  She  has  the  great  Krupp  works 
with  90,000  men  working  night  and  day  and  she  has  taken  the 
Belgian  arms  factory  at  Liege  and  turned  it  to  her  own  service 
against  Belgium,  with  probably  10,000  men  more.  Now,  if  she 
can  prevent  France  from  getting  arms  from  this  side  of  the 
water,  she  can  conquer  her  enemies  in  sixty  days  or  less.  That 
is  what  Mr.  Viereck  means  by  bringing  the  war  to  an  end.  He 
means  ending  it  successfully  to  the  country  which  began  it. 
The  American  people  are  to  enable  the  Germans  to  march  into 
Paris  in  sixty  days,  or  less ! 

"This  achievement,  'Mr.  Viereck  thinks,  would  be  the  best 
Christmas  present  that  the  United  States  could  make  to  the 
world.  Put  an  end  to  the  war  within  sixty  days!  But  what 
then?  Simply  begin  again  da  capo.  Germany  would  levy  con- 
tributions in  cash  and  territory  to  suit  herself,  and,  having  thus 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  211 

planted  the  seeds  for  future  wars,  would  begin  to  prepare  for 
them,  and  would  still  call  them  defensive  wars.  It  is  needless 
to  say  that  the  people  of  the  American  hemisphere  are  not  con- 
templating any  such  Christmas  gift,  either  as  givers  or  re- 
ceivers. They  do  not  want  this  war  to  end  merely  as  an 
armistice,  to  break  out  again  as  soon  as  the  chief  belligerent 
can  get  his  second  wind.  The  reasons  which  compel  reflecting 
men  and  nations  to  think  that  an  indecisive  conclusion  would 
be  a  calamity  to  the  world  are  well  presented  in  the  last  At 
lantio  Monthly  Maga&ine,  in  an  article  by  Lowes  Dickinson, 
which  shows  that  these  ever-recurring  holocausts  can  be  con- 
trolled only  by  an  international  police  force  capable  of  throt- 
tling any  unruly  member,  and  that  the  real  workers  of  the  world 
must  take  into  their  own  hands  the  issues  of  war  and  peace, 
and  no  longer  leave  those  mighty  questions;  to  be  decided  by 
diplomats  and  brigadier-generals  alone. 

The  enlightenment  which  Mr.  Viereck  casts  upon  the  situa- 
tion is  that  Germany  is  beginning  to  feel  insecure  in  the  situa- 
tion in  which  she  has  placed  herself.  She  needs  some  outside 
help  in  addition  to  that  of  the  unspeakable  Turk.  She  cannot 
see  any  new  reinforcement,  but  if  she  can  cut  off  the  purchase  of 
arms  and  ammunition  by  the  Allies  on  this  side  of  the  water 
she  can  prolong  the  war  or  perhaps  win  victory  in  the  end,  so 
that  the  Christmas  present  would  be  all  her  own.  And  it  would 
be  called  by  the  plausible  name  of  neutrality.  .  .  .  Any 
new  legislation  which  introduces  a  change  of  practice  in  favor 
of  one  belligerent  and  against  another  is  a  breach  of  neutrality. 
That  is  what  Mr.  Viereck  proposes.  His  Christmas  present  is  a 
change  of  law  favorable  to  the  Germans  and  adverse  to  the 
Allies.  Much  more  might  be  said  on  this  subject,  but  let  us 
conclude  by  asking  who  is  going  to  find  bread  for  the  100,000  or 
more  American  wage-workers  who  are  now  earning  their  own 
living  in  our  arms  factories,  if  we  pass  a  law  to  prohibit  the 
exportation  of  their  products?" 

Americans  should  also  ask :  "Are  the  prohibitory  laws  we 
are  urged  to  pass  desirable  or  proper  not  only  in  this  crisis 
but  as  the  basis  for  a  permanent  policy  ?" 

The  Ouilook  (105),  after  having  answered  the  first  part 


212  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

of  this  question  in  the  negative  on  ethical  and  other 
grounds,  proceeds  to  deal  as  follows  with  the  effect  of  such 
laws  as  a  precedent  for  future  action  on  the  part  of  other 
countries : 

"Is  the  prohibition  of  exporting  such  supplies  an  act  that  we 
should  regard  as  friendly  and  neutral  if,  the  case  being  reversed, 
we  were  at  war  and  wished  to  purchase  supplies  from  a  neutral 
power  ?  At  such  a  time  as  this  the  Uinted  States  must  make  its 
decision,  guided  not  by  present  sentiment  and  feeling  alone,  but 
by  its  convictions  as  to  what  it  regards  as  the  policy  of  perma- 
nent validity  under  all  circumstances.  Suppose  the  United 
States  were  at  war  with  Great  Britain  and  had  swept  the 
British  navy  from  the  seas  (a  supposition  plainly  contrary  to 
any  conceivable  fact),  and  we  were  confining  our  operations  to 
defense  along  the  Canadian  border;  should  we  regard  it  as  a 
friendly  act  on  the  part  of  Germany  and  France  and  Russia 
and  the  other  European  Powers  if  they  jointly  and  severally 
refused  to  sell  us  clothing  for  our  soldiers  on  the  ground  that 
they  wished  to  be  entirely  neutral  and  to  even  matters  up  be- 
cause England  had  lost  her  fleet  ?  We  do  not  think  that  Ameri- 
cans would  consider  that  as  a  sign  of  neutrality  and  friendliness. 
If  it  would  not  be  a  sign  of  neutrality  and  friendliness  on  the 
part  of  Russia  and  France  and  Germany  under  those  conditions, 
it  would  certainly  not  be  a  sign  of  neutrality  on  our  part  to  do 
likewise  under  present  conditions. 

"We  do  not  think,  therefore,  that  the  prohibition  of  the  ex- 
port of  munitions  of  war  can  be  justified  on  the  ground  of 
ethics,  on  the  ground  of  neutrality,  or  on  the  ground  of  a  con- 
sistent permanent  policy." 

In  illustration  of  German-American  methods,  I  may  add 
another  editorial  from  an  American  newspaper.  (106) 

It  voices  the  sentiments  of  thousands  of  Americans, 
whose  sympathies  are  with  the  Allies,  but  who  disagree 
with  me  either  as  to  the  propriety,  or  as  to  the  effective 
possibilities  of  our  interference. 

They  may  be  depended  upon  at  least  to  insist  on  genuine 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  213 

neutrality  and  to  resent  bitterly  any  attempt  to  set  a  trap 
for  us,  which  would  leave  us  embroiled  with  Great  Britain 
— the  chief  hope  and  the  main  object,  so  far  as  we  are  con- 
cerned, of  the  Pan-Germanists  here  and  abroad. 

"That  Germany  is  deliberately  trying  to  foster  trouble  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  should  occasion  no 
surprise.  Tactically  it  is  the  logical  thing  for  Germany  to  do, 
the  thing  that  the  precedents  of  ages  recommend,  the  thing 
that  England  expected  Germany  to  attempt.  For  months  Ger- 
many has  been  looking  for  some  pretext  that  could  be  so  exag- 
gerated as  to  arouse  resentment  in  this  country  against  the 
Allies.  And,  quite  naturally,  failing  to  find  such  a  pretext,  she 
will  do  her  utmost  to  create  one.  A  Board  of  Strategy  that 
neither  balked  nor  gagged  at  letting  loose  all  the  Moslem  fa- 
natics and  dervishes  upon  the  Christian  world  would  hardly 
hesitate  to  break  the  one  hundred  years  of  peace  that  have  ex- 
isted among  the  English-speaking  nations. 

"Forewarned  should  mean  forearmed.  The  Administration 
cannot  be  unaware  of  the  motives  and  hopes  that  lie  behind  and 
control  the  stage  at  the  present  international  situation.  Presi- 
dent Wilson's  neutrality  must  be  as  impartial  and  real  in  effect 
as  it  was  prompt  and  emphatic  in  enunciation.  The  United 
States  has  too  much  at  stake,  is  too  essential  to  the  work  of 
world  reconstruction  after  the  war  is  over,  and  is  far  too  wise 
and  just  to  be  drawn  into  a  false  position  by  the  designs  of  any 
of  the  European  combatants.  America  is  genuinely  committed 
to  neutrality  and  must  not  violate  it  on  any  terms." 

The  Fatherland,  a  pro-German  weekly,  published  in 
English  in  this  country,  goes,  as  I  have  already  noted,  far 
beyond  the  prohibition  of  war  materials.  It  said: 

"Every  nation  in  war  has  the  right  to  crush  the  spirit  of  its 
enemy  and  starve  it  into  submission  if  it  can.  We  (the  Ameri- 
cans) are  denying  this  right  to  Germany,  for  we  are  sending 
food  by  the  shipload  to  the  enemies  of  Germany  in  order  that 
they  may  go  on  fighting  and  killing." 


214:  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

The  meaning  of  this  is  that  Americans  are  violating  the 
principles  of  neutrality,  are  actually  aiding  the  enemies  of 
Germany,  by  sending  food  to  keep  life  in  the  homeless, 
famished  people  of  Belgium — not  the  army,  but  the  help- 
less non-combatants.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the  Fath- 
erland— a  sympathetic  title! — we  do  wrong  to  interfere, 
even  by  means  of  charity  for  helpless  victims  of  war,  with 
the  German  purpose  to  starve  the  women  and  children  of 
an  enemy. 

This  does  not  seem  to  require  further  comment  except  to 
note  that  this  cheerful  suggestion  comes  from  the  same 
German- American,  who  was  so  anxious,  in  the  interests  of 
humanity,  to  stop  the  sale  of  arms  and  ammunition  to 
"belligerents/' 

There  is  a  serious  side  to  the  pro-German  agitation  that 
has  been  well  brought  out  recently,  apropos  of  an  exhorta- 
tion addressed  to  German-Americans  by  Herr  Bidder, 
through  his  paper  the  New  York  Stoats  Zeitung:  (107) 

"It  is  well  for  those  Americans  of  German  extraction  to 
ponder  on  the  many  grave  problems  which  confront  them  owing 
to  the  war,"  writes  Mr.  Ridder,  who  is  convinced  that  "the  drift 
of  public  opinion,  driven  by  a  press  unfriendly  toward  Germany, 
requires  a  closer  bond  of  sympathy  between  the  friends  of  Ger- 
many." The  day  draws  near,  he  declares,  when  "the  Allies, 
hard  pressed,  forced  by  their  necessities,  will  demand  of  the 
United  States  even  a  more  active  co-operation  than  they  are 
receiving  at  the  present  time,"  and  "against  that  day  we  must 
be  organized  to  fight."  He  continues: 

"Each  single  and  individual  German  residing  in  the  United 
States  or  the  descendant  of  a  German  must  play  his  or  her  part 
in  preaching  the  gospel  of  German  justice  and  German  fair 
play.  Let  an  endless  chain  of  discussion  help  to  swing  the  bal- 
ance back  in  favor  of  ths  cause  we  know  to  be  just.  There 
must  be  no  shirkers,  no  drones  in  this  campaign.  The  responsi- 
bility lies  evenly  on  every  one  of  you.  We  cannot  resort  to  con- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


scription,  but  must  rely  upon  universal  service  of  a  voluntary 
character.     .     .     . 

"There  are  over  two  thousand  German  societies  of  one  kind 
or  another  in  Greater  New  York.  Practically  every  German- 
speaking  American,  as  well  as  thousands  residing  in  New  York, 
are  members  of  one  or  more  of  these  societies.  Similarly  in 
each  great  town  the  Germans  and  their  descendants  have  proved 
loyal  to  the  traditions  upon  which  their  lives  are  based.  These 
societies  form  strong  rallying-points  for  a  campaign  of  educa- 
tion. .  .  . 

"There  have  been  no  traitors  to  the  German  cause  either 
among  the  66,000;000  Germans  in  Germany  or  the  many  millions 
of  Germans  and  their  descendants  in  the  United  States.  .  .  . 

"I  am  not  preaching  sedition.  I  am  preaching  the  highest 
form  of  loyalty  that  I  know.  We  are  a  mixed  people  in  the 
United  States.  We  have  come  from  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
We  have  all  given  our  mite  to  the  building  up  of  this  great 
country.  We  all  deserve  equally  of  it  and  it  of  us.  There  is  no 
reason,  therefore,  why  its  destinies  should  be  swayed  more  by 
the  people  who  think  as  England  thinks  than  by  those  who 
think  as  Germany  does." 

Replying  to  Mr.  Ridder  through  the  columns  of  the  New  York 
Sun,  Mr.  Maurice  Leon  v  rites  : 

"Organize  for  what  ?  What  is  expected  of  German-  Americans 
by  Mr.  Ridder  and  his  associates?  Here  is  the  essence  of  the 
clarion  call  —  'There  have  been  no  traitors  to  the  German  cause 
either  among  the  66,000,000  of  Germans  in  Germany  or  among 
the  many  millions  of  Germans  and  their  descendants  in  the 
United  States.' 

"There  in  a  nutshell  is  the  Pan-German  policy  in  the  German 
citizenship  law  of  July  22,  1913.  Under  that  policy  the  66,- 
000,000  Germans  in  Germany  and  the  many  millions  of  Germans 
and  their  descendants  in  the  United  States  are  expected  to  stand 
as  one  man  for  the  German  cause,  and  Mr.  Ridder  now  pro- 
claims that  anyone  in  this  country  coming  under  the  all-inclu- 
sive description  of  the  German  Citizenship  Law  who  does  not 
stand  by  the  German  cause  as  steadfastly  as  the  invaders  of 
Belgium,  northeast  France,  and  Poland  must  be  stigmatized  as 
a  traitor. 

"Taking  in  this  connection  the  Pan-German  campaign  con- 
ducted by  German  members  of  Congress  under  the  convenient  • 


216  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

cloak  of  a  peace  propaganda,  gains  a  significance  which  has 
been  clear  so  far  to  comparatively  few  of  our  citizens.  It  even 
leads  one  to  suspect  that  the  Los  Angeles  Times  might  be  well 
informed  in  its  disclosure  of  the  preparations  for  a  raid  against 
Canada  by  a  German  force  mobilized  in  California. 

"Mr.  Bidder's  call  to  'organize'  is  intended  to  be  understood 
as  meaning  'mobilize.'  This  mobilization  is  not  to  be  largely 
military  in  character,  at  least  for  the  present,  but  rather 
political.  Dr.  Dernburg,  as  boss  of  an  enormous  German  po- 
litical machine,  is  to  be  enabled  to  dictate  to  the  American 
Government  so  that  it  will  recognize  the  annexation  of  Belgium 
by  the  Kaiser.  Once  that  is  achieved,  our  Minister  and  Con- 
suls in  Belgium  will  be  treated  as  meddlers  concerning  them- 
selves improperly  with  matters  affecting  German  subjects  if 
they  continue  their  activities  in  behalf  of  a  prostrate  people  to 
whom  the  United  Statea  still  stands  as  the  symbol  of  human 
justice  and  pity." 

I  hope  every  American  who  is  enough  interested  in  this 
book  to  read  it  at  all,  will  take  time  to  think  over  the 
possibilities — not  of  danger,  but  of  serious  annoyance — dis- 
closed by  the  above  quotations. 

The  endeavor  to  arouse  anti-British  feeling  has  in  venom 
and  unscrupulousness  been  predominant,  and  obviously 
seems  to  the  pro-German  conspirators  in  this  country  their 
most  promising  line  of  effort.  They  continue  to  refer  to 
every  dispute  or  misunderstanding  between  this  country 
and  Great  Britian,  but  particularly  emphasize  the  attitude 
of  the  British  governing  classes  at  the  time  of  our  civil 
war.  I  shall  digress  here  long  enough  to  call  attention  to 
the  fact  that  they  might  henceforth,  in  their  efforts  to  get 
a  "fair  and  moderate  view  of  the  situation,"  use  the  follow- 
ing quotations,  taken  from  the  files  of  o*ie  Philadelphia 
paper  (108)  in  1898  during  our  recent  war  with  Spain. 

"The  Tageblatt :    'For  a  long  time  such  an  important  enuncia- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  217 

tion  of  the  head  of  a  State  has  not  met  with  such  general  dis- 
approval. President  McKinley's  humanitarian  phrases  render 
the  disagreeable  impression  even  more  lasting.  The  concluding 
passages  are  the  least  satisfactory  of  all."'  (April  18th.) 

"The  Vossische  Zeitung :  'American  policy  in  Cuba  has  been 
characterized  by  violence  and  hypocrisy,  and  has  not  a  single 
ennobling  feature.'"  (April  22nd.) 

"The  Kolnische  Zeitung:    'To  expel  Satan  by  Beelzebub  can 
hardly  be  described  as  a  result  of  genuine  philanthropy.' " 
(April  23rd.) 

"The  organ  of  Prince  Bismarck,  The  Hamburger  Nachrichten, 
insists  that  Germany  must  follow  the  policy  which  will  be 
the  most  useful  to  her  own  interests.  'It  is  wholly  indifferent 
to  Germans,'  says  the  newspaper,  'whether  Cuba  remains  a 
Spanish  colony  or  becomes  an  independent  American  republic. 
But  German- American  interests  must  be  watched  and  attention 
must  be  paid  to  the  feelings  of  Germans  in  the  United 
States.'"  (April  25th.) 

"The  Nachrichten,  however,  characterizes  the  action  of  the 
United  States  as  'an  insolent  piece  of  presumption  against  the 
rest  of  the  world;  an  absolutely  unjustifiable  outrage  quite 
analogous  to  the  interference  by  Greece  in  Crete/  but  adds, 
'Germany's*  theoretic  opposition  to  Monroeism  can  only  be 
practically  enforced  when  German  interests  are  directly  con- 
cerned, which  is  not  now  the  case.  Therefore,  The  Nachtrichten 
councils  the  strictest  neutrality,  saying:  'It  must  be  left  to 
Spain,  individually,  to  resent  American  insolence.'"  (April 
25th.) 

"The  Schlesische  Zeitung:  'While,  individually  Germany  may 
view  with  indignation  the  jingoistic  rapacious,  pharisaical  game 
now  playing  at  Washington,  the  same  indignation  must  be  felt 
in  regard  to  the  Spanish  reign  of  terror  in  Cuba.  The  German 
Government  has  merely  to  guard  the  welfare  and  the  interests 
of  the  German  people.  These  bid  us  to  let  events  take  their  own 
course.'"  (April  25th.) 

"The  Vorwdrts.  'i"he  enemies  are  too  unequal  to  admit  of 
any  supposition  but  that  the  war  will  end  in  the  utter  exhaus- 
tion of  Spain.  To  Spain's  loss,  however,  there  will  be  no  cor- 
responding gain  to  the  United  States.  Thus  the  war,  no  matter 
how  it  ends,  means  a  great  disaster,  and  even  the  dollar  crazy 
Americans  will  hardly  be  able  to  call  it  'good  business'!" 


218  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"Cologne  Volks  Zeitung:  'We  do  not  favor  intervention  in 
this  war;  but  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  European  Powers 
ought  to  exert  strong  diplomatic  pressure  at  the  first  oppor- 
tunity in  order  to  shorten  the  war.  The  Yankees  are  already 
swollen  with  pride.  If  they  win  another  decisive  victory  hardly 
any  European  country  will  be  able  to  consort  with  them  diplo- 
matically. In  view  of  the  unfriendly  sentiments  entertained  in 
the  United  States  toward  Germany,  and  the  many  economic 
differences  existing  between  the  two  countries,  it  is  very  pos- 
sible that  Germany  may  be  the  next  victim  of  American  impu- 
dence.' "  (May  9th.) 

"Prince  Bismark  condems  the  war  outright: 

"The  whole  course  of  the  Washington  Administration  has 
been  insincere." 

"My  views  are  well  understood.  I  have  always  held  that 
war  is  only  defensible  after  all  other  remedies  have  failed." 

"The  result  of  the  war  cannot  be  wholesome  either  to  Amer- 
ica or  Europe.  The  United  States  will  be  forced  to  adopt  an 
intermeddling  policy,  leading  to  unavoidable  frictions.  She 
thus  abandoned  her  traditional  peace  policy,  and,  in  order  to 
maintain  her  position,  she  must  become  a  military  and  naval 
power,  an  expensive  luxury  which  her  geographic  position 
rendered  unnecessary."  (May  19th.) 

"America's  change  of  front  means  retrogression  in  the  high 
sense  of  civilization.  This  is  the  main  regrettable  fact  about 
this  war."  (May  19th.) 

"Tagliche  Rundschau:  'The  British  lion  would  rather  roar 
than  fight.  It  sounds  well  and  costs  nothing.  But  England 
finds  herself  confronted  with  the  question  of  her  very  existence. 
Consequently  the  nation  of  shopkeepers  suddenly  raises  the  cry 
of  "A  kingdom  for  an  alliance!"  and  behold  an  ally  appears  in 
the  shape  of  Brother  Jonathan.  America  with  its  mish-mash 
of  waste  pieces  of  nationality,  millions  of  emigrant  murderers, 
English  tongue,  and  black,  red  and  yellow  skins  suddenly 
becomes  an  Anglo-Saxon  race.'"  (May  23rd.) 

"The  Militar-Wochenzeitung,  the  leading  army  organ:  'Any 
attempt  by  the  United  States  to  effect  the  landing  of  large 
bodies  of  troops  in  Cuba  before  the  raw  and  undisciplined 
hordes  have  had  at  least  six  months  training  will  inevitably 
result  in  disastrous  and  wholesale  slaughter.  It  is  even  very 
doubtful  whether  these  so-called  citizen  soldiery  will  stand 
their  ground  against  the  veterans  of  Spain  next  fall.  We  only 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  219 

need  recall  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run  to  become  aware  of  the 
absence  of  staying  qualities  in  these  militia,  badly  led  and 
worse  drilled.'  "  (May  30th.) 

A  well-known  and  highly  respected  citizen  of  New 
York,  Dr.  George  Haven  Putnam,  has  sent  to  the  New 
York  Times  a  copy  of  his  reply,  to  a  request  to  join  the 
so-called  German  University  League — another  of  the  num- 
erous aliases  of  the  pro-German  propaganda  in  this  coun- 
try. After  pointing  out  his  full  appreciation  of  much  that 
Germany  has  done,  Mr.  Putnam  gives  his  reason  for  his 
detestation  of  her  present  attitude.  Americans  believe,  he 
says,  "that  the  preparation  for  this  war  had  been  made  by 
Germany  years  back,  and  that  the  Servian  incident  merely 
served  as  a  convenient  occasion  for  the  outbreak. 

"We  believe  that  the  main  purpose  of  the  war  is  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  British  Empire  and  the  taking  over  of  her  Colonial 
possessions,  to  which  Germany  has  long  expected  to  become  the 
heir.  France  stands  between  Germany  and  England  and,  to  use 
the  German  words,  'France  must  be  crushed  this  time  so  thor- 
oughly that  she  shall  never  again  stand  in  the  way  of  Germany.' 
The  unauthorized  invasion  and  the  devastation  of  Belgium 
seem  to  have  been  considered  by  the  German  ruler  as  but  trivial 
incidents  which  should  carry  no  weight  in  connection  with  this 
larger  policy. 

"I  am  myself  an  old  soldier,  and  I  have  looked  with  increasing 
indignation  at  the  manner  in  which  Germany  is  conducting 
thia  war  and  at  the  barbarous  precedents  that  in  this  20th 
century  are  being  made  under  German  official  orders.  The 
destruction,  by  order,  of  Belgian  cities,  the  taking  of  hostages; 
and  the  making  of  these  hostages  responsible  for  the  actions  of 
individuals  whom  they  were  not  in  a  position  to  control;  the 
shooting  of  many  of  these  hostages;  the  appropriation  for  the 
use  of  the  armies  of  the  food  which  had  been  stored  in  Antwerp 
and  elsewhere,  so  that  the  people  in  Belgium,  now  officially 
classed  as  'subjects  of  Germany/  are  dependent  upon  American 
charity  to  save  them  from  starvation ;  the  imposition  upon  these 


220  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

starving  and  ruined  communities  of  crushing  indemnities — all 
these  things  impress  Americans  as  contrary  to  the  standards 
of  modern  civillization.  The  ruin  brought  upon  Louvain  can, 
it  seems  to  us,  be  paralleled  in  modern  history  only  by  the 
destruction  of  Heidelberg  by  the  troops-  of  Louis  XIV,  but  this 
instance  of  French  barbarism  is  nearly  250  years  back  and  ought 
assuredly  not  to  have  been  imitated  in  this  20th  century. 

"We  find  ground,  also,  for  indignation  at  the  use  of  vessels 
of  war  and  of  Zeppelins  for  the  killing  of  women  and  children 
and  other  unarmed  citizens  in  undefended  places.  Such  killing, 
which  has  nothing  whatsoever  to  do  with  the  direction  of  the 
work  of  campaigns,  can  only  be  classed  as  murder.  With  these 
views  I  can,  therefore,  not  at  this  time  at  least,  accept  the 
companionship  of  German- Americans  who  are  prepared  to  ap- 
prove, defend,  or  excuse  these  actions/' 

And  from  Philadelphia  went  another  reply  to  the  same 
request : 

"Dr.  Hugo  Kirbach,  recording  secretary,  The  German  Uni- 
versity League,  New  York. 

"Sir — The  circular  letter  from  your  league  directed  to  my 
father,  the  late  Dr.  Horace  Howard  Furness,  has  come  to  my 
hands  and  has  been  opened  by  me,  one  of  his  executors.  Were 
he  still  alive  I  am  confident  that  his  heart  would  be  wrung  by 
the  sad  spectacle  of  the  degradation  of  Germany  and  the  Ger- 
man people  that  he  knew  and  loved  when  he  was  a  student  in 
1854-56,  and  that  honored  him  with  a  degree  from  Halle  in 
1878.  That  was  the  German  life,  and  there  were  then  the 
German  ideals  that  inspired  admiration. 

Now  I  am  sure  his  every  fiber  would  cry  out  against  the 
grievous  wrongs  that  this  Prussianized  people  have  perpe- 
trated before  the  eyes  of  the  civilized  world.  How  can  they 
expect  fair  play,  giving  none?  Where  obtain  trustworthy  ma- 
terial bearing  on  German  affairs  that  will  not  tend  to  plunge 
Germany  deeper  and  deeper  in  the  mire  and  make  humane  men 
and  women  avert  their  eyes  in  horror?  No  sophistry  can 
excuse  the  breaking  of  solemn  pledges  between  nations ;  no  argu- 
ment can  justify  the  devastation  of  Belgium.  False  patriotism 
alone  makes  the  American-Germans  condone  the  sacrifice  of  the 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  221 

flower  of  their  fathers'  country,  and  the  agony  of  tears  of  the 
mothers  and  wives  on  the  altar  of  commerce.  Germany  and 
Austria-Hungary  are  the  invaders  and  have  been  from  the 
start. 

"Feeble  though  my  influence  may  be  I  shall  never  move  my 
pen  nor  raise  my  voice  to  justify  or  uphold  German  aims  or 
ideals  as  exhibited  in  the  present  ghastly  catastrophe;  I  con- 
demn them  from  my  heart  of  hearts.  Yours, 

"WILLIAM  HENRY  FUBNESS,  SD." 

One  single  illustration  of  the  extent  of  the  pro-German 
— and  anti- American — propaganda  must  suffice;  but  it  is 
of  extreme  significance. 

The  Japan  Times  (109)  says  editorially: 

"This  is  no  time  for  a  kid-glove  policy  or  for  mere  veiled  hints 
at  some  indefinite  'influence*  of  which  we  must  beware.  We 
have  had  enough  of  kid-gloved  'publicity';  enough  of  innuendo 
and  of  suggestion. 

"Some  years  ago  a  very  great  statesman,  the  Marquis 
Komura,  then  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  for  Japan,  in  a 
carefully  prepared,  formal  speech,  denounced  'The  forces  of 
Evil.'  .  .  . 

"On  the  occasion  of  this  memorable  speech  and  reference  to 
'The  Forces  of  Evil/  the  Secretary  of  War  for  the  United 
States  was  the  guest  of  the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs.  The 
speech  was  short,  but  it  was  very  sincere.  The  reference  to 
'The  Forces  of  EviP  was  carefully  and  deliberately  made.  It 
was  no  offhand,  after-dinner,  courteous  expression  of  regard 
from  host  to  guest.  It  was  not  a  balloon  sent  up  to  make  a 
little  whispering  for  an  hour  in  the  smoking-room.  Marquis 
Komura  intended  that  his  reference  to  'The  Forces  of  EviF 
should  be  heard  throughout  the  world  and  it  was  so  heard. 
Within  a  few  hours  of  the  delivery  of  the  speech — consisting  of 
less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  words> — it  was  read  by  millions 
of  people  in  America  and  in  Europe.  'The  Forces  of  Evil*  which 
were  seeking  and  are  seeking  to  sow  discord  between  America 
and  Japan  were  known  to  Marquis  Komura  as  they  are  known 
to  his  successors  and  to  the  Government  of  Japan.  It  is  with 


222  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

these  forces  of  evil  that  the  friends  of  Japan  have  been  at 
death  grips  for  the  last  six  years.  It  was  to  these  German 
'Forces  of  Evil'  that  the  Marquis  Komura  issued  his  notable 
warning  when  he  spoke  across  the  table  as  courteous  host  to 
welcome  guest  and  as  good  friend  to  good  friend.  It  was  an 
earnest  warning  to  America  of  which,  alas!  but  few  took 
sufficient  cognizance.  But  it  was  noted  in  Berlin.  .  .  . 

"The  error  of  indifference  and  of  'laissez  fa/ire*  has  had  ex- 
tremely grave  results.  Germany  and  its  agents,  in  Japan  and 
in  America  were  startled,  and  kept  silence  for  a  time.  The 
warning  was  heard  and  there  was  a  marked  inactivity  among 
the  mercenaries  hired  to  sow  discord  and  make  a  casus  belli  if 
possible  between  Japan  and  America.  But  the  one  warning  was 
insufficient  and  soon  'The  Forces  of  Evil'  took  heart  of  grace 
again.  .  .  . 

"For  years  the  German  'Forces  of  Evil'  in  Japan,  in  China, 
in  America  and  in  Europe  have  intrigued  and  lied  with  the  one 
end  in  view.  'Discord,  discord  and  war/  has  been  the  slogan  of 
the  German  'Forces  of  Evil.'  Their  agents  have  been  our  own 
neighbors  and  our  friends — our  own  familiars  and  our  guests. 
They  have  spied  and  lied  and  slandered  in  the  press,  in  the 
home  and  in  the  club.  They  have  bought  men's  souls  and  honor. 
They  have  paid  well  the  prostitutes  who  wore  the  garb  of  de- 
cency and  were  received  into  our  homes  as  of  our  own.  In 
Japan  and  in  China  for  the  last  six  years  this  subornation  of 
treachery  has  continued  at  a  heavy  cost  to  the  treasury  in 
Berlin,  it  is  true,  but  alas !  at  still  heavier  cost  to  Japan  and  to 
America. 

"Even  to-day  while  Japan  is  treating  the  Germans  resident 
here  and  non-combatant  with  a  remarkable  leniency,  the  Ger- 
man agents  of  'The  Forces  of  Evil'  are  at  work.  'Discord,  dis- 
cord and  war'  is  still  their  slogan. 

"In  America  the  agents  of  these  same  'Forces  of  Evil'  are 
desperately  working  to  the  same  end. 

"True  'Forces  of  Evil'  are  the  Germans  that  have  been  all- 
pervading  for  the  last  ten  years  in  America  and  for  the  last 
five  in  Japan.  There  are  signs  of  an  awakening  in  America  and 
there,  is  some  hope  that  simultaneously  both  Japan  and  her  good 
neighbor  across  the  Pacific  will  awake  to  a  realization  of  the 
extent  of  the  havoc  being  wrought  to  good  repute  and  neighbor- 
liness  by  the  German  'Forces  of  Evil.' 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  223 

An  extract  from  a  letter  to  me  written  by  a  prominent 
and  influential  American  residing  in  Yokohama  is  evidence 
that  the  feeling  and  suspicion  expressed  in  this  editorial 
are  not  confined  to  newspaper  offices : 

"On  the  outbreak  of  the  war  with  Russia,  a  friend  of  mine, 
coming  down  from  Miyanoshita,  saw  at  all  the  railway  stations 
between  there  and  Yokohama  the  people  of  the  towns  and  sur- 
rounding villages  gathered  together  to  watch  their  troop  trains 
going  to  the  front.  In  the  little  hoods  of  all  the  little  babies 
he  saw  crossed  miniature  Japanese  and  United  States 
flags !  .  .  . "  The  association  of  our  flag  with  theirs  was 
the  spontaneous  outburst  from  the  hearts  of  the  multitude.  In 
the  hour  of  utmost  peril  to  their  national  existence  it  was  their 
all-time  friends  they  thought  of!  To  whom  is  it  due  that  in 
the  space  of  less  than  nine  years  after  this  demonstration  each 
country  has  been  made  to  look  on  the  other  as  an  enemy  to  be 
looked  out  for?  To  whom  can  be  traced  all  the  reprehensible, 
senseless  agitation  in  California  against  the  Japanese — the 
'Yellow  Peril'? 

"See  the  name  of  the  reptile  in  the  enclosed  clipping!  Not 
to  speak  of  the  fiendish  work  of  the  same  kind  done  elsewhere 
to  us,  what  more  do  we  want  for  a  casus  belli?  How  long,  O 
Lord,  will  we  stand  for  this  sort  of  thing? 

"(Yokohama,  Japan.)" 
The  clipping  which  he  enclosed  was  the  following: 

[Asahi  Service.] 

"New  York,  Jan.  15. — Secretary  Schareriberg,  of  the  Federated 
Labor  Party  in  California,  brought  before  the  State  Legislature 
on  January  15th  a  draft  bill  depriving  Japanese  from  the  right 
to  lease  land.  As  the  Government  party  of  the  committee  of 
the  Legislature  are  opposed  to  the  introduction  of  anti- Japanese 
bills,  his  bill  will  probably  be  killed  in  committee." 

The  Outlook    (110)    severely  criticises   an   attempt  of 
Admiral  von  Tirpitz,  who  in  an  interview  spoke  of  Japan's 


224  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

intention  to  make  China  a  vassal  and  then  militarize  it, 
adding,  "Then  it  will  be  time  for  America  to  look  out." 
He  also  declared  that  Germany  will  "never  abandon  the 
white  race."  The  Outlook  continues : 

"The  use  of  the  words  'white  man*  in  connection  with  Asia 
is  the  crux  of  the  whole  difficulty.  It  stands  for  an  ingrained 
sense  of  racial  superiority  and  is  the  expression  of  a  racial  inso- 
lence which  must  be  extirpated  root  and  branch ;  it  is  a  gratui- 
tous and  insulting  reflection  on  the  character,  history,  and 
ability  of  the  great  races  in  the  East.  Any  attempts  to  stir  up 
American  feeling  against  Japan  is  distinctly  a  violation,  if  not 
of  the  rules  of  war,  at  least  of  the  rules  of  honor.  To  poison  the 
wells  of  national  feeling  is  just  as  discreditable  as  to  poison 
the  wells  from  which  men  drink." 

It  says  elsewhere:  (111) 

"The  country  does  not  yet  understand  that  it  is  in  danger 
of  too  readily  accepting  as  truth  propaganda  in  the  interest  of 
Germany  and  inimical  to  Japan ;  that  its  ignorance  of  Japanese 
sentiment  and  opinion  is  being  used  by  rumor-mongers  un- 
friendly to  both  Japan  and  America.  Since  Japan's  participa- 
tion in  the  war  Americans  have  been  warned  many  times  from 
German  sources  to  beware  of  Japan.  Recently,  indeed,  a  writer 
defending  the  Austro-German  cause  in  the  pages  of  The  Outlook 
went  so  far  as  to  point  out  the  peril  to  which  this  country  was 
exposed  from  an  invasion  from  Canada  led  by  Great  Britain 
and  supported  by  Japanese  and  Indian  troops!  This  is  an  in- 
stance of  the  extent  to  which  the  Teutonic  hostility  to  Japan 
may  be  carried.  Many  similar  tales  are  being  told  in  this 
country." 

At  this  writing  the  pro-German  and  anti-British  propa- 
ganda is  going  on  as  vigorously,  as  unscrupulously,  but 
I  think,  as  unsuccessfully  as  ever.  They  are,  I  believe, 
making  more  enemies  than  converts.  They  are  arousing 
antagonism  instead  of  sympathy,  and  distrust  and  suspi- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  225 

cion  in  place  of  confidence.  I  cannot  see  that  they  have 
made  the  least  impression  on  the  country  outside  of  their 
fellow  German-Americans,  although,  as  I  have  said, 
(p.  194),  it  is  difficult  to  estimate  what  effect,  if  any,  their 
campaign  through  the  country  newspapers  will  have. 

In  my  judgment  the  vast  majority  of  non-German 
Americans  agree  with  the  editorial  opinion  well  expressed 
under  the  caption:  "Advice  to  German- Americans" :  (112) 

"Representative  Bartholdt  and  his  associates  are  doing  Ger- 
many no  good,  and  they  are  doing  themselves  much  harm,  by 
their  pernicious  pro-German  propaganda. 

"When  they  threaten  to  carry  Germany's  case  to  the  polls 
and  make  the  German  cause  an  issue  in  American  politics,  they 
are  playing  with  dynamite.  The  American  people  will  not 
tolerate  such  a  campaign  of  alienism,  and  the  chief  suffere'rs 
will  be  the  so-called  German- Americans  who  plot  it. 

"Germany  is  the  only  country  engaged  in  this  war  which  has 
officially  undertaken  to  manipulate  American  opinion.  It  is 
the  only  belligerent  which  maintains  a  lobby  in  the  United 
States  to  incite  public  sentiment  against  other  belligerents  with 
which  we  are  friendly.  The  only  foreign  element  in  this  country 
which  is  assailing  the  President  of  the  United  States  and  seek- 
ing to  bulldoze  the  Government  of  the  United  States  is  the 
German  element,  and  that  sort  of  thing  can  be  easily  overdone. 

"When  the  representatives  of  German- American  societies  pub- 
licly pledge  themselves  in  effect  to  oppose  all  candidates  for 
office  who  will  not  sacrifice  American  interests  to  German  in- 
terests, they  are  straining  American  patience  to  the  breaking 
point. 

"Long  after  this  war  is  over  Mr.  Bartholdt  and  his  associates 
will  have  to  live  in  this  country.  Few  of  them  will  voluntarily 
return  to  Germany  to  help  pay  the  cost  of  the  conflict.  Their 
real  interests  are  all  in  the  United  States,  and  the  sooner  they 
reconcile  themselves  to  being  Americans  the  better. 

"This  country  once  had  an  alien  law  on  its  statute  books.  It 
might  be  very  reluctant  to  enact  a  similar  statute,  but  every 

15 


226  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

day  such  German-Americans  as  Richard  Bartholdt  are  breaking 
down  this  reluctance." 

The  whole  subject  of  the  German-American  propaganda 
has  been  reviewed,  summarized  and  commented  upon 
by  the  Philadelphia  paper,  whose  editorials  I  have  so  often 
quoted.  It  contains  in  logical  and  readable  form  a  synop- 
sis of  the  history  and  present  condition  of  the  movement, 
and  it  expresses  clearly  and  forcibly  current  representative 
American  opinions.  (113) 

"When  President  Wilson  issued  his  famous  admonition  to  his 
countrymen  to  be  'neutral  even  in  thought/  it  was  generally 
recognized  as  futile,  if  not  foolish  and  unpatriotic.  It  served 
no  good  purpose  to  advocate  a  course  that  could  be  followed 
only  by  persons  mentally  unsexed  or  paralyzed.  Every  intelli- 
gent American  has,  and  should  have,  opinions  on  the  war. 

"Those  who  regard  it  as  a  conflict  in  behalf  of  the  sanctity 
of  treaty  obligations,  the  security  of  small  nations  and  the  de- 
fense of  democratic  principles  against  autocracy  and  militarism 
should  have  decided  views  and  should  be  able  to  support  them 
with  evidence. 

"No  less  is  it  legitimate  for  Americans  to  hold  opinions 
directly  opposed  to  these.  Those  who  are  German  or  Austrian 
or  Turkish,  in  blood  or  sympathy,  have  a  perfect  right  to  de- 
clare that  these  countries  were  unjustly  attacked;  that  they 
are  fighting  for  the  highest  ideals,  and  that  militarism  and 
autocratic  institutions  are  necessary  to  the  development  of  an 
efficient  civilization. 

"American  newspapers  have  done  right  in  discussing  these 
questions  with  the  utmost  freedom  and  in  opening  their  col- 
umns to  the  advocates  of  both  sides.  The  supporters  of  Ger- 
many have  violated  no  obligation  of  citizenship  in  upholding 
her  cause  and  condemning  her  enemies.  Pro-German  meetings, 
with  cheers  for  the  Kaiser  and  the  singing  of  German  songs, 
have  revealed  a  curious  devotion  to  un-American  theories  of 
government,  but  otherwise  have  not  been  objectionable. 

"But  all  these  rights  have  been  conceded  upon  the  assumption 
that  the  issue  is  between  one  group  of  belligerents  and  another. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  227 

It  was  taken  for  granted  that  no  American  citizen,  however 
strong  his  sympathies  for  his  fatherland,  would  falter  in  loyalty 
to  this  country  or  would  put  the  interests  of  a  foreign  nation 
above  those  of  America. 

"In  the  early  days  of  the  war,  while  the  German  advance 
on  Paris  was  under  way,  there  were  few  signs  of  divided  alle- 
giance. But  when  the  German  retreat  began  there  was  a 
change,  and  it  soon  became  clear  that  these  citizens  were  ready 
to  take  sides,  not  only  as  between  the  belligerents,  but  as  be- 
tween one  belligerent  and  the  United  States. 

"The  first  evidence  of  this  spirit  was  bitter  denunciation  of 
American  newspapers  for  'lying  reports';  the  news  of  the  Ger- 
man retreat  was  assailed  as  a  malicious  invention,  and  the 
papers  were  accused  of  selling  their  columns  for  British  gold. 
Then  came  savage  criticism  of  American  public  opinion  as  ig- 
norant and  prejudiced. 

"Later  President  Wilson  and  Secretary  Bryan  fell  under  dis- 
pleasure as  exponents  of  a  neutrality  that  favored  the  Allies. 
This  was  particularly  absurd,  since  the  administration  was  so 
rigidly  neutral  that  it  failed  even  to  register  a  diplomatic  pro- 
test when  international  agreements  to  which  it  was  a  party 
were  shamelessly  violated. 

"From  this  attitude  developed  a  demand  that  the  United 
States  take  the  grossly  unneutral  action  of  forbidding  the 
export  of  munitions  of  war,  the  only  nations  to  be  affected 
being  those  fighting  Germany.  Gradually  the  propaganda  be- 
came marked  by  abuse  and  intimidation  of  public  officials,  and 
finally  has  taken  shape  in  the  formation  of  an  organization 
which  purposes  to  make  the  German  cause  an  issue  in  the  in- 
ternal politics  of  this  country. 

"The  National  German- American  League,  formed  at  a  secret 
meeting  in  Washington  on  January  30th,  declares  its  aim  is  to 
're-establish  a  genuine  American  neutrality  and  to  uphold  it 
free  from  commercial,  financial  or  political  subservience  to  for- 
eign powers.'  The  statement  would  have  more  force  if  it  were 
not  for  the  fact  that  the  promoters  are  all  passionate  advocates 
of  Germany,  while  every  act  urged  would  involve  an  American 
move  against  Germany's  enemies. 

"When  Congressman  Bartholdt,  Doctor  Hexamer  and  the 
other  'neutrals'  demand  fa  free  and  open  sea  for  the  United 
States  and  unrestricted  traffic  in  non-contraband  goods/  they 


228  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

mean  that  this  government  should  attempt  to  nullify  the  Allies' 
control  of  the  sea  and  should  insist  upon  delivering  cargoes  to 
Germany. 

"When  they  'favor,  as  a  strictly  American  policy,  the  imme- 
diate enactment  of  legislation  prohibiting  the  export  of  arms 
and  munitions  of  war,'  they  mean  it  as  a  strictly  German  policy, 
since  it  would  directly  favor  Germany  and  directly  injure  her 
opponents,  and  would  amount  to  active  intervention  in  the  war. 

"When  they  urge  'establishment  of  an  American  merchant 
marine'  they  have  in  mind  the  purchase  by  the  United  States 
Government  of  $40,000,000  worth  of  German  ships  which  took 
refuge  in  American  ports  to  escape  the  consequences  of  the  war ; 
and  they  advise  this  course  regardless  of  the  fact,  as  stated  by 
Senator  Root,  that  the  government  'would  buy  a  quarrel  with 
every  ship.'  But  the  real  purpose  of  the  organization  is  made 
clear  in  the  final  paragraph  of  the  statement  of  principles : 

"  'We  pledge  ourselves,  individually  and  collectively,  to  sup- 
port only  such  candidates  for  public  office,  irrespective  of  party, 
who  will  place  American  interests  above  those  of  any  other 
country  and  who  will  aid  in  eliminating  all  undue  foreign  in- 
fluences from  official  life.' 

"This  declaration  against  'foreign  influences,'  from  men  wrhose 
activity  in  government  circles  on  behalf  of  a  foreign  power  has 
been  an  offense  and  a  scandal,  is  rather  ludicrous.  But  that 
does  not  save  the  movement  from  being  unpatriotic,  mischievous 
and  dangerous. 

"The  theory  has  been  that  this  country  was  a  'melting  pot' 
for  the  incoming  members  of  all  races;  that  in  the  crucible  of 
its  free  institutions  old  patriotic  instincts  and  prejudices  would 
be  fused  into  an  Americanism  that  would  ring  true  at  every 
test.  For  the  first  time  that  belief  has  been  tinged  with  doubt. 
For  the  first  time  we  face  the  possibility  that  instead  of  a 
united  nation,  made  up  of  loyal  men  of  many  bloods,  this  may 
become  a  people  made  up  of  groups  of  foreigners,  whose  first 
allegiance  is  not  to  the  land  which  gave  them  shelter,  but  that 
which  gave  them  or  their  fathers  birth. 

"Already  the  poisonous  propaganda  has  been  carried  to  ex- 
traordinary lengths.  Its  promoters  are  not  satisfied  with  giving 
sentimental  and  moral  support  to  one  of  the  belligerents,  as  is 
their  right,  but  they  are  endeavoring  to  foment  American  hatred 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  229 

toward  the  others  and  to  force  this  government  into  menacing 
controversies  abroad. 

"They  not  only  denounce  the  Allies,  but  they  decry  America, 
assail  its  government  and  traduce  its  people.  A  well-known 
German- American  of  Philadelphia  wrote  recently  to  the  Kol- 
nische  Zeitung  that  he  was  'not  proud'  of  this  country,  and  that 
its  flag  should  be  stamped  with  the  dollar  mark  as  a  symbol  of 
national  hypocrisy.  The  Cologne  Gazette  has  printed  a  two- 
column  article  from  its  correspondent  on  this  side,  declaring 
that  German- Americans  are  'in  danger  of  their  lives'  because  of 
the  'bigotry  and  fanaticism'  of  Americans. 

"The  'neutrality'  meetings,  as  we  have  seen  in  Philadelphia, 
are  neither  neutral,  nor  American,  nor  German-American,  but 
wholly  German.  The  limit  of  sarcasm  now  is  the  phrase,  'as 
neutral  as  Pennypacker.'  They  even  denounce  the  sending  of 
food -to  the  starving  Belgians  as  an  act  unfriendly  to  their  be- 
loved fatherland  and  a  violation  of  neutrality. 

"Their  activity  in  Washington  is  wholly  in  behalf  of  Ger- 
many; and  we  have  seen  the  astonishing  spectacle  of  members 
of  the  American  Congress  calling  at  the  embassy  of  a  foreign 
power  to  discuss  legislation  designed  for  the  exclusive  benefit 
of  that  power.  Every  action  they  propose  would  compromise 
American  neutrality  and  endanger  American  peace  and  pros- 
perity. All  too  plainly  they  have  adopted  the  view  urged  upon 
all  good  Germans  by  Professor  Adolph  Lasson,  of  the  University 
of  Berlin: 

**  'A  foreigner  is  an  enemy  until  he  proves  that  he  is  not. 
One  cannot  rest  neutral  in  relationship  to  German  and  the 
German  people.  Either  one  must  consider  Germany  as  the  most 
perfect  political  creation  that  history  has  known,  or  one  must 
approve  her  destruction.' 

"The  national  design  is  foreshadowed  by  action  taken  a  few 
days  ago  by  the  German-American  Society  of  Passaic,  N.  J., 
which  'aims  to  support  all  endeavors  in  the  interest  of  German- 
ism,' and  issues  this  appeal: 

"  'Come,  all  of  you,  German  societies,  German  men  and  Ger- 
man women,  so  that,  united  offensively  and  defensively,  with 
weapons  of  the  spirit,  we  may  help  our  beloved  Germany  on- 
ward. .  .  .  We  ask  your  speedy  decision,  in  order  to  per- 
mit of  an  effective  participation  and  lead  in  the  spring  cam- 
paign of  1915.' 


230  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"Such  open  repudiation  of  the  first  principles  of  American 
citizenship  is  startling  enough,  in  view  of  the  oath  which  every 
naturalized  German  must  take,  that: 

"  'He  absolutely  and  entirely  renounces  and  abjures  all  alle- 
giance and  fidelity  to  every  foreign  prince,  potentate,  state  or 
sovereignty,  and  particularly  to  Wilhelm  II,  German  Emperor, 
of  whom  he  was  before  a  subject.' 

"But  the  spirit  becomes  understandable  when  it  is  recalled 
that  the  German  Government  encourages  Germans  to  remain 
Germans  wherever  they  go.  It  allows  any  one  of  German  blood 
to  become  a  citizen  of  Germany,  even  though  he  has  never  seen 
Germany  and  has  no  intention  of  taking  up  his  residence  there; 
and,  since  January  1,  1914,  German  emigrants  have  had  the 
privilege  of  dual  citizenship.  The  law  effective  from  that  date 
provides : 

"  'German  citizenship  is  not  lost  by  one  who,  before  acquiring 
foreign  citizenship,  has  secured,  on  application,  the  written  con- 
sent of  the  competent  authorities  of  his  home  State  to  retain  his 
citizenship/ 

"The  leaders  of  German  thought  have  seduously  taught  that 
Germans  leaving  the  fatherland  should  remain  faithful  to  the 
empire  and  serve  its  interests  before  all  others.  During  the 
Spanish- American  war  Die  Qrensboten,  the  most  influential 
political  weekly  in  Germany,  declared  editorially : 

"  'The  number  of  Germans  in  the  United  States  amounts  to 
millions,  but  many  of  them  have  lost  their  native  language  or' 
their  native  names.  Nevertheless,  German  blood  flows  in  their 
veins;  and  it  is  only  required  to  gather  them  together  under 
their  former  nationality  in  order  to  bring  them  back  into  the 
lap  of  their  mother  Germania. 

"'We  have  to  consider  that  more  than  3,000,000  Germans 
live  as  foreigners  in  the  United  States  who  are  not  personally 
interested  in  that  country.  A  skillful  German  national  policy 
should  be  able  to  manipulate  that  German  multitude  against 
the  shameless  American  war  speculators.' 

"Von  Treitschke,  the  noted  historian,  warned  his  country- 
men: 

"To  civilization  at  large  the  Anglicizing  of  the  German- 
Americans  means  a  heavy  loss.  .  .  .  Among  Germans  there 
can  no  longer  be  any  question  that  the  civilization  of  mankind 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  231 

suffers  every  time  a  German  is  transformed  into  a  Yankee. 

"And  the  incomparably  frank  Von  Bernhardi  writes: 

"  'The  isolated  groups  of  Germans  abroad  greatly  benefit  our 
trade,  since  by  preference  they  obtain  their  goods  from  Ger- 
many. But  they  may  also  be  useful  to  us  politically,  as  we  dis- 
cover in  America.' 

"How  far  they  are  ready  to  go  in  being  politically  useful  to 
Germany,  Americans  are  now  discovering.  Of  all  the  nations 
at  war,  Germany  is  the  only  one  that  maintains  an  organized 
literary  and  press  bureau  in  this  country;  and  of  all  our 
naturalized  aliens,  German-Americans  alone  have  undertaken 
to  make  the  war  a  political  issue,  to  shape  the  policies  of  the 
government  in  the  interest  of  a  foreign  power  and  to  intimidate 
American  officials  in  the  performance  of  their  duty. 

"Happily,  there  are  some  of  them  whose  conception  of  their 
duty  as  Americans  is  higher  than  this.  There  is  no  more  val- 
iant advocate  of  Germany  against  the  Allies  than  Dr.  Kuno 
Francke,  of  the  faculty  of  Harvard,  where  he  is  head  of  the 
Germanic  museum.  But  while  his  sympathies  and  convictions 
are  with  the  empire,  his  honor  is  pledged  to  the  United  States ; 
and  his  fine  sense  of  patriotism  should  be  inspiring  to  all  of  us. 
Declining  to  join  in  the  pro-German  political  movement,  he 
writes : 

"  'My  sympathies  are  wholly  and  fervently  on  the  German 
side.  But  they  cannot  make  me  forget  what  seem  to  me  my 
duties  as  an  American  citizen.  I  believe  it  would  be  against 
my  duties  as  an  American  citizen  if  I  were  to  take  part  in  a 
propaganda  the  purpose  of  which  will  be  thought  to  be  to  force 
our  government  into  a  hostile  attitude  toward  England.  .  .  . 
As  a  man  of  German  blood,  I  might  welcome  the  help  which 
would  accrue  to  Germany  by  such  a  conflict.  But  as  an  Ameri- 
can citizen  I  cannot  possibly  support  such  a  policy.'  .  .  . 

"  'Let  us  refrain  from  political  organizations  which  would  set 
Germans  in  this  country  apart  as  a  class  by  themselves.  It 
would  foster  hatred  instead  of  sympathy;  and  only  by  gaining 
the  sympathy  of  the  majority  of  the  American  people  can  we 
German-Americans  help  the  cause  of  our  mother  country.' 

"The  movement  is  deplorable  in  every  aspect.  The  German- 
Americans  who  are  attempting  to  separate  themselves  from 
their  countrymen  should  realize  that,  while  their  sympathies 


232  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

may  properly  lie  with  a  foreign  nation  against  its  foreign  ene- 
mies, their  interest  and  their  loyalty  lie  with  America,  and 
that  a  German  defeat  would  be  for  them  far  less  a  calamity 
than  their  segregation  from  the  rest  of  the  American  people." 

An  analysis  of  this  German-American  movement,  which 
is  worthy  of  the  most  careful  attention  from  every  Ameri- 
can citizen  and  which  appeared  (114)  directly  upon  the 
announcement  of  its  plans  and  purposes,  is  further  evi- 
dence as  to  the  way  in  which  genuine  Americans  should 
and  do  regard  it: 

"There  has  been  organized  in  Washington  a  league  for  the 
' re-establishment  of  real  American  neutrality,  and  to  uphold  it 
free  from  commercial,  financial,  and  political  subservience  to 
foreign  Powers.'  The  initial  meeting  of  the  new  organization 
was  presided  over  by  a  Congressman  from  Missouri,  and  three 
of  his  colleagues  gave  approval  to  the  purpose  of  the  meeting  by 
their  presence.  What  the  league  stands  for  is  shown  by  the 
following  resolution  which  it  adopted  as  its  platform: 

"  'Resolved,  That  we,  citizens  of  the  United  States,  agree  to 
effect  a  National  organization  the  objects  and  purposes  of  which 
may  be  stated  as  follows: 

"  *1.  In  order  to  insure  the  possession  of  an  independent  news 
service  we  favor  an  American  cable  controlled  by  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States. 

"  '2.  We  demand  a  free  and  open  sea  for  the  commerce  of  the 
United  States  and  unrestricted  traffic  in  non-contraband  goods 
as  defined  by  law. 

"  %  We  favor  as  a  strictly  American  policy  the  immediate 
enactment  of  legislation  prohibiting  the  export  of  arms,  ammu- 
nition, and  munitions  of  war. 

"  '4.  We  favor  the  establishment  of  an  American  merchant 
marine;  and 

"  '5.  We  pledge  ourselves  individually  and  collectively  to 
support  only  such  candidates  for  public  office,  irrespective  of 
party,  who  will  place  American  interests  above  those  of  any 
other  country,  and  who  will  aid  in  eliminating  all  undue  for- 
eign influence  from  official  life.' 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  233 

"Since  this  league  seeks  to  justify  its  existence  by  claiming 
to  be  an  American  institution  for  the  promotion  of  neutrality, 
it  will  be  fair  to  judge  it  according  to  the  standard  of  its  pro- 
fessed ideals.  Is  it  American?  Is  it  neutral? 

"An  American  citizen  might  very  properly,  so  far  as  interna- 
tional relations  are  concerned,  plead  for  Government  ownership 
of  the  cables  just  as  he  might  plead  for  Government  ownership 
of  the  railways.  The  wisdom  of  such  a  plea  as  an  argument  for 
neutrality  in  war  time  is  entirely  another  matter,  and  since  the 
introduction  of  wireless  telegraphy  seems  particularly  irrele- 
vant. 

"The  second  article  quoted  above  contains  two  misstatements 
of  law  and  fact.  American  commerce  in  American  bottoms  is  as 
free  to-day  as  commerce  can  be  in  time  of  world  war.  American 
commerce  in  foreign  bottoms,  due  to  the  preponderance  of  the 
English  navy,  is  very  much  freer  than  it  would  be  were  the 
sea  forces  of  the  Powers  at  war  evenly  balanced  in  strength. 
Furthermore,  by  no  international  law  has  the  question  of  con- 
traband been  given  the  exact  seal  of  legal  definition.  Precedent, 
custom,  and  the  needs  of  nations  at  war  furnish  the  only  exist- 
ing rules  for  contraband.  To  meet  an  emergency  as  it  arose  the 
United  States,  in  a  military  order,  once  included  in  the  pro- 
scribed list  escaped  slaves.  To  meet  another  emergency,  Ger- 
many or  England  has  an  equal  right,  or  rather  a  better  right, 
to  prevent  the  importation  of  copper  or  picric  acid  or  gasoline 
by  an  enemy  country.  Naturally,  this  right  is  dependent  upon 
the  possession  of  power  to  enforce  it. 

"The  third  proposition  put  forward  by  the  League  would  in- 
deed deserve  to  be  ranked  as  a  'strictly  American  project/  for  it 
is  absolutely  without  precedent  in  international  law  or  custom. 
Article  VII  of  Convention  4,  adopted  at  The  Hague  in  1907, 
specifically  affirms  the  right  of  citizens  in  neutral  nations  to 
sell  arms  and  ammunition  to  any  belligerent.  If  so  well-estab- 
lished a  principle  of  international  law  is  to  be  altered  at  all,  it 
must  be  done  in  time  of  peace.  To  alter  it  now  would  in  itself 
be  a  highly  unneutral  act  in  so  far  as  it  deprived  any  belligerent 
of  a  military  advantage  secured  by  sacrifice  of  treasure  and 
life.  .  .  . 

"If  this  programme  is,  as  it  ought  to  be,  judged  by  its  inevi- 
table effect,  two  things  stand  out  very  clearly: 


234:  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"LA  definitely  unneutral  project  is  brought  forward  under 
the  specious  guise  of  promoting  neutrality. 

"2.  Under  a  pretense  of  removing  one  foreign  influence  from 
American  life  it  is  proposed  to  throw  the  Government  frankly 
under  the  influence  of  another,  and  this  proposal  is  backed  by  a 
threat  to  employ  racial  politics  in  the  domestic  affairs  of  the 
American  nation. 

"This  programme  has  apparently  received  the  support  of 
many  respectable  and  intelligent  German-Americans.  The 
measure  of  its  failure  will  be  the  measure  by  which  American 
citizens  of  German  birth  succeed  in  understanding  and  realizing 
their  duties  toward  the  spirit  of  the  American  nation." 

Further  evidence  as  to  the  German-American  attitude 
is  to  be  found  in  some  of  my  own  recent  experiences.  As 
soon  as  the  first  edition  of  this  little  book  appeared  I  began 
to  receive,  by  mail,  abusive  communications ;  most  of  them 
were  anonymous ;  the  large  majority  gave  internal  evidence 
of  Teutonic  authorship.  The  names,  real  or  fictitious,  ap- 
pended to  a  small  number  of  them,  were  in  all  but  a  few 
instances,  German  in  type. 

The  personal  abuse  arid  the  personal  threats  are  of  too 
little  importance  to  inflict  upon  my  readers,  except  where 
they  have  more  general  significance;  moreover,  they  were 
often  too  vulgar  to  be  printable. 

The  interesting  feature  was  in  the  frequent  recurrence 
of  sentences  like  these : 

"If  your  plan  should  succeed,  and  America  intervenes,  you 
will  find  that  you  will  have  more  on  your  hands  than  you  an- 
ticipate. There  mtvy  even  be  mobilization!" 

".  .  .  the  intelligent  portion  of  our  people,  including 
the  millions  of  German- Americans  and  Irish- Americans,  will 
know  how  to  stop  the  desire  of  our  Anglo-phile  jingoes  to  drag 
this  country  into  war." 

"You  re-hash  what  your  venomous  and  lying  press  has  printed 
and  re-printed  since  the  beginning  of  the  war.  .  .  .  The 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  235. 

American  press  has  given  voice  to  English  statements  from  the 
beginning;  has  reported  German  atrocities  which  were  really 
Belgian  atrocities." 

"You  are  fomenting  discord  and  rebellion.  You  are  helping 
to  bring  on  civil  war." 

"We  will  show  you  before  long  what  a  liar  you  are  and  will 
give  you  something  to  remember  tis  by." 

"Don't  forget,  when  the  time  oomes,  that  there  are  millions 
of  us  in  this  country,  and  that  one  man  fighting  within  the  in- 
trenchments  is  worth  ten  in  the  open  field." 

These  will  serve  as  samples.  They  are  exceedingly  un- 
important, but  illustrate  a  certain  phase  of  German-Amer- 
ican activities. 

Of  course,  some  of  them  were  amusing. 
-  One  excited  German-American,  after  calling  me  ''infa- 
mous," "treasonable,"  "abominable,"  and  "shameless,"  says 
that  I  "am  violating  in  open-faced  manner"  (as  if  I  were 
a  Waterbury  watch)  "the  neutrality  of  the  United  States." 
He  continues :  "Professor  White  will  yet  hear  more  of  his 
handicraft."  He  adds:  (115) 

"I  heard  from  good  authority  that  Professor  White  is  the 
closest  friend  of  Sir  Treuves,  the  physician  of  King  George,  and 
visits  him  rather  frequently.    Now,  may  I  ask  Professor  White 
what  it  was  worth  to  him  to  be  persuaded  by  his  friends,  George 
and  Sir  Treuves,  to  stir  up  the  Americans  by  false  and  lying 
statements?    May  I  ask  what  was  the  price?" 
This  precious  document  was  signed  K.  Hentschel.    I  do 
not  intend  to  tell  him  the  price.    That  is  a  secret  between 
Sir  Treuves  and  me. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  German-Americans, 
who  hold  meetings  and  pass  resolutions  of  sympathy  with 
"the  Fatherland,"  also  continue  to  try  to  palliate  and  ex- 
plain away  the  outrage  upon  Belgium.  They  profess  at 
one  and  the  same  time  loyalty  to  the  Kaiser  and  Germany, 


236  A  TEXT-BOOK k  OF  THE  WAR 

and  to  the  country  of  their  adoption;  to  the  apotheosis  of 
militarism  and  officialism  and  to  real  Democracy;  to  the 
German  Eagle  and  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  Congressmen 
(with  German  names)  try  to  introduce  legislation  to  pre- 
vent this  country  shipping  supplies  of  any  sort  "to  any 
belligerent" — this  while  the  Allies  control  the  seas.  But 
when  the  obvious  effect  of  their  preposterous  attempt  to 
help  Germany  is  exposed,  and  they  are  held  up  to  ridicule, 
they  rend  the  air  with  protestations  of  devotion  to  "one 
country  and  one  flag."  They  all  remind  me  of  the  woman 
described  in  the  old  song  of  the  lumberjacks : 

"There  was  a  woman  in  our  town — 

In  our  town  she  did  dwell. 
She  loved  her  husband  tenderly 

And  another  man  twicet  as  well." 

Two  of  the  leading  citizens  of  Philadelphia  have  ex- 
pressed their  views  as  to  one  phase  of  the  German- Amer- 
ican propaganda,  the  organization  of  so-called  "neutrality 
leagues"  throughout  the  country. 

In  response  to  an  invitation  to  be  a  vice-president  of  a 
meeting  of  the  "American  Neutrality  League,"  the  Epis- 
copal Bishop  of  Pennsylvania  wrote:  (116) 

"From  information  which  has  come  to  me  lately,  both  in 
Washington  and  here,  I  have  learned  that  most  of  the  agitation 
at  present  being  made  to  prevent  the  shipping  of  war  materials 
from  this  country  to  belligerent  nations,  is  being  made,  not 
really  in  the  interest  of  neutrality,  but  in  hostility  to  the  allied 
nations,  and  with  the  hope  of  helping  Germany  and  Austria  in 
their  campaign.  Is  the  proposed  meeting  here  fairly  chargeable 
with  the  same  purpose?  and  if  not,  is  there  any  available  evi- 
dence to  the  contrary  with  which  you  can  provide  me? 

"As  an  American  citizen,  pledged  to  uphold  American  ideals, 
I  am  altogether  against  Germany  and  Austria  in  this  war,  on 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  237 

the  ground  that  they  are  threatening,  and  would  destroy,  as 
far  as  they  have  opportunity,  those  political  and  personal  liber- 
ties and  rights  which  we  Americans  have  made  the  foundations 
of  our  Government. 

"Feeling  as  I  do,  you  will  readily  understand  that  I  cannot 
have  part  in  any  meeting  or  movement  which  has  for  its  real 
object,  whether  or  not  explicitly  avowed,  the  support  of  a  cause 
to  which  I  personally  am  resolutely  opposed. 
"Very  sincerely  yours, 

"P.  M.  RHINELANDEB, 
"Bishop  of  Pennsylvania." 

The  ex-Attorney  General  of  Pennsylvania  declined  the 
same  invitation  as  follows:  Noting  that  the  meeting  was 
for  the  purpose,  among  other  things,  of  advocating  the  pas- 
sage of  laws  to  prevent  the  shipping  of  munitions  of  war  to 
any  belligerent  nation,  he  continues:  (117) 

"Inasmuch  as  no  munitions  of  war  can  be  shipped  to  Ger- 
many, would  it  not  be  more  appropriate  if  the  purpose  of  the 
meeting  was  stated  to  be  the  passage  of  laws  to  prevent  the 
shipment  to  either  England  or  France  of  munitions  of  war? 
It  is  true  that  such  laws  might  be  construed  as  unfriendly  acts 
to  both  England  and  France,  but  what  difference  would  that 
make  if  thereby  aid  and  comfort  could  be  given  to  the  Germans, 
who  are  making  such  a  magnificent  fight  for  the  perpetuation 
of  the  principles  of  representative  democratic  government? 

"Personally  I  have  no  patience  with  talk  about  a  neutrality 
that  will  give  aid  or  comfort  to  a  Germany  which  is  repre- 
sented by  the  Hohenzollern  family,  who  have  more  than  once 
broken  their  plighted  word  to  give  the  German  people  a  form 
of  representative  government  which  would  have  enabled  them 
to  be  heard  and  be  a  ruling  force  in  the  nation.  Do  you  for 
one  moment  suppose  that  this  most  unrighteous  war  would 
ever  have  been  begun  if  the  German  masses  had  been  consulted  ? 
If  you  do,  you  are  blind  to  the  Social  Democratic  forces  in 
Germany,  which  are  a  growing  menace  to  Hohenzollern  absolu- 
tism. In  my  opinion  the  continually  increasing  strength  of  the 


238  A.  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

Social  Democratic  party  in  Germany  was  one  of  the  causes  of 
this  war. 

"Irrespective  of  this  view,  however,  is  there  any  reason  why 
a  body  of  American  citizens  should  unite  in  a  public  meeting 
under  the  guise  of  neutrals  to  urge  the  passage  of  laws  that 
can  only  injure  England  and  France  and  aid  Germany,  the 
destroyer  of  Louvain  and  the  Cathedral  of  Rheims  ? 
"Very  truly  yours, 

(Signed)     "M.  HAMPTON  TODD." 

On  the  evening  of  the  "neutrality"  meeting,  which  these 
gentlemen  declined  to  attend,  "Die  Wacht  am  Bhein"  and 
"Deutschland  iiber  Alles,"  were  sung  by  the  assembled 
crowd ! 

Sometimes  a  concrete  example  of  one's  individual  experi- 
ence serves  better  to  bring  home  the  realization  of  a  general 
situation  than  do  many  impersonal  arguments.  For  this 
reason  I  reprint  here  part  of  a  communication  I  sent  to  a 
Philadelphia  paper,  (118),  which  it  published  under  the 
caption:  " American  Irritation  at  German  Apologists." 

"One  of  the  causes  of  the  existing  and  wide-spread  irritation 
on  the  part  of  Americans  toward  some  of  the  German- American 
apologists  is  illustrated  in  letters  from  Professor  Morris  Jas- 
trow,  Jr.,  and  Mr.  George  Haven  Putnam  to  the  New  York 
Evening  Post  (December  19,  1914)  in  reference  to  the  transla- 
tion, or  mistranslation  of  'Deutschland  iiber  Alles,'  the  now 
famous  German  war  song. 

"Mr.  Putnam  in  a  'Foreword'  to  an  American  edition  of 
Treitschke's  Essays'  alluded  to  'Deutschland  iiber  Alles'  as 
implying  the  supremacy  of  Germans  over  all  other  peoples. 

"Doctor  Jastrow  says  that  every  German  schoolboy  knows 
that  the  proper  translation  is  'above  everything  else,  Germany/ 
and  adds  that  'the  subsequent  lines  of  the  song  clearly  show 
that  the  phrase  expresses  the  same  sentiment  as  'My  Country, 
'Tis  of  Thee.'  He  further  discloses  his  own  sentiments  by 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  239 

remarking  that  'at  present,  to  be  sure,  it  would  be  more  appro- 
priate for  the  Germans  to  sing  'Alles  fiber  Deutschland.' 

"Mr.  Putnam  in  reply  says  that  'the  interpretation  given  it  in 
the  past  years  has  been,  as  Professor  Jastrow  <md  other  good 
Germans  point  out,  an  expression  simply  of  patriotic  devotion 
to  the  Fatherland.'  Here,  in  the  words  I  have  italicized,  he, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  put  his  finger  on  the  cause  of  irri- 
tation to  which  I  have  alluded.  If  that  characterization  were 
accepted  by  the  'German-Americans,'  who  write  to  our  papers 
and  appeal  to  our  people,  many  of  us,  however  radically  we 
disagreed,  might  find  excuse  or  palliation,  even  for  views  that 
seem  subversive  of  all  American  ideals.  Much  could  be  for- 
given to  'good  Germans.'  But  that,  during  this  period  of  stress 
and  tension,  persons  obviously  German  in  sympathy  and  belief 
should  profess  to  be  impartially  representing  America  seems 
intolerable.  Their  right  to  express  their  views  must  be  con- 
ceded, but  the  effort  which,  almost  without  exception,  they  make 
to  be  regarded  as  calm,  judicial,  philosophic,  fairminded  Amer- 
icans should  be  resented. 

"Professor  Jastrow,  for  example,  (Public  Ledger,  September 
27,  1914),  issues  an  article  under  the  caption,  'An  American 
Appeals  for  Fairness  and  Moderation  Toward  Germany.'  Per- 
haps he  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  head-line,  but  as  throughout 
he  uses  'we'  as  synonymous  with  Americans,  the  title  is  to 
that  extent  justified.  It  is  not  unfair  to  say  that  this  'appeal' 
was,  in  effect,  a  plea  for  Germany,  containing  a  stab  at  England, 
a  slur  on  America  and  an  attempt  to  palliate  the  Belgian  out- 
rage. 

"Later  (The  Nation,  November  12,  1914)  we  find  Professor 
Jastrow  writing  a  sarcastic  letter,  in  which — still  using  the 
'we'  for  Americans — he  tries  to  hold  this  country  up  to  ridi- 
cule for  the  attention  recently  paid  to  the  writings  of  Bern- 
hardi  and  Treitschke,  for  the  prevalent  view  of  the  actions  and 
character  of  the  Kaiser  and  for  the  widespread  belief  as  to 
the  possibility  of  German  aggression,  if  Germany  should  win 
in  this  war. 

"It  is  strange  how  he  falls  into  the  same  error  as  do  the 
paid  agents  of  the  German-American  propaganda  who  'trip 
up,'  as  Professor  Jastrow  would  say,  and  continually  sneer 
at  and  offend  the  very  persons  whose  good  will  they  are  sup- 
posed to  be  soliciting. 


340  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"If  \ve  return  to  the  subject  of  ''Deutschland  iiber  Alles' 
another  source  of  irritation  may  be  examined,  viz.,  the  way  in 
which  facts — often  even  trivial  facts — are  distorted  for  Ameri- 
cans upon  the  apparent  assumption  that  we  are  either  too  care- 
less or  too  unintelligent  to  recognize  inaccuracies. 
(See  pp.  256,  282.) 

"He  and  his  co-conspirators  against  American  sympathy 
with  the  Allies — at  first  spontaneous  and  instinctive,  now  rea- 
soned and  immutable — neglect  to  pay  us  even  the  perfunctory 
compliment  of  assuming  that  we  have  ordinary  elementary 
information.  But  then  Bernhardi  says:  'The  whole  realm  of 
human  knowledge  is  concentrated  in  the  German  brain.' 

"The  Truth  about  'Deutschland  uber  Alles'  ( see  p.  ) ,  which 
was  written  in  the  40's,  seems  to  me  to  have  been  well  defined 
by  Mr.  Putnam  (The  Evening  Post,  December  19,  1914,): 
'Under  the  war  spirit,  which  has  developed  steadily  since  1871 
up  to  the  outbreak  in  August,  1914,  the  term!  'Deutschland 
iiber  Alles'  has  (and  very  naturally)  come  to  express  the 
present  war  spirit  of  the  Fatherland;  a  spirit  which,  as  openly 
avowed,  is  connected  with  the  necessity  of  breaking  up  the 
British  Empire. 

"Doctor  Dernburg's  description  of  it  as  *a  song  of  modesty' 
has  elements  of  humor  that  some  of  his  more  serious  misstate- 
ments  lack. 

"Professor  Jastrow,  in  his  correspondence  with  the  Post, 
classes  Mr.  Putnam  with  those  'who  write  on  Germany  with 
the  predetermined  resolve  to  hold  that  country  up  as  the 
plague-spot  on  the  earth,'  and  says  that  they — whoever  they 
may  be — do  not  go  to  'the  sources'  for  their  information,  and 
therefore  'trip  up.' 

"In  Professor  Jastrow's  communication  to  the  Public  Ledger 
(September  27,  1914,)  he  accused  Colonel  Roosevelt  and  a 
portion  of  the  American  people  of  'advocating  warfare  as  essen- 
tial to  the  full  strength  of  the  nation.'  In  the  same  paper,  on 
December  20,  he  retracts  this,  and  acknowledges  that  it  was 
a  'misstatement.' 

"In  The  Nation  of  November  12,  he  said,  in  a  defense  of  the 
German  professors  who  have  been  accused,  and  truthfully 
accused — of  helping  to  spread  the  teachings  that  brought  on 
the  war,  that  Professor  Eduard  Meyer,  the  historian,  'can  have 
very  little  time  or  energy  to  devote  to  public  agitation.5  In 


A.  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  241 

The  Nation  of  December  10,  Professor  Lang,  of  Toronto,  showed 
that  a  meeting  of  the  International  Students'  Union  of  Berlin, 
held  in  February,  1913,  developed  into  what  an  American 
clergyman,  who  was  present,  declared  to  be  'the  most  disgrace- 
ful scene  he  had  witnessed  in  the  course  of  many  years'  resi- 
dence in  Berlin/  and  that  this  was  largely  due  to  Professor 
Meyer,  who  made  a  bitter  attack  on  England,  exalted  the 
Machtpolitik,  boasted  that  for  Germany  'the  time  had  not  yet 
arrived'  (he,  of  course,  referred  to  Der  Tag),  and  altogether 
made  a  great  turmoil  for  one  who  was  without  'time  or  energy 
to  devote  to  public  agitation.'  It  would  look  as  though  Pro- 
fessor Jastrow  had  on  occasions  neglected  to  go  to  'the 
sources.* 

"Professor  Jastrow,  in  his  most  recent  article,  published 
to-day  (Public  Ledger,  December  20),  says  that  the  difference 
between  his  'friends'  and  himself  is  that  the  majority  of  them 
'show  a  kind  of  secret  glee'  in  condemning  Germany,  while  he 
is  'exceedingly  sorry  for  her.'  I  am  not  sure  what  sort  of 
furtive  pleasure  is  represented  by  'secret  glee,'  nor  can  I 
imagine  any  one  afraid  to  show  openly  to  Professor  Jastrow, 
or  to  any  of  the  other  'good  Germans,'  any  merriment  one  could 
extract  from  the  tragic  situation.  But  if  the  sorrowers  for 
poor  Germany  would  keep  some  of  their  sympathy  for  Belgium 
instead  of  seeking — as  does  Doctor  Jastrow — for  'extenuating 
factors'  to  excuse  her  devastation  there  would  be  less  distaste 
in  the  American  mind  for  their  perverted  arguments.  When 
simple  counsels  of  common  sense  and  self-preservation — justified 
a  thousand- fold  by  subsequent  events — are  denounced  as  'secret 
agreements'  between  England,  France  and  Belgium;  when 
injustice  is  condoned  and  brutality  is  ignored,  how  can  we 
Americans  obey  Doctor  Jastrow's  behest  and  'extend  the  hand 
of  sympathy  and  good-will  to  all  the  unfortunate  and  warring 
nations  ? 

"In  his  September  article  (the  Public  Ledger,  September  2) 
Professor  Jastrow  devoted  some  space  to  sarcastic  insinuations 
as  to  England's  'altruism'  (which  had  not  been  claimed  by  her) 
and  said  that  by  the  historian  of  the  future  'the  neutrality  of 
Belgium  will  be  regarded  as  a  very  minor  factor,  perhaps 
entirely  negligible.' 

**In  December  (the  Public  Ledger,  December  20)  we  find  him 
16 


MS  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

regarding  'the  English  type  of  culture  as  representing  on  the 
whole  the  most  harmonious  combination  of  traits  of  mind  and 
character/  though  even  yet  he  cannot  help  seeking  for  'extenu- 
ating factors' — mythical  though  they  may  be — to  justify  the 
rape  of  Belgium. 

"Perhaps  in  another  three  months  he  will  be  able  once  more 
to  discharge  the  proper  function  of  a  scholar — 'the  function 
of  detached  criticism,  of  cool  consideration,  of  insisting  that 
facts,  and  all  the  relevant  facts,  be  known  and  faced. 

"Professor  Jastrow  overflows  with  admiration  for  Germany's 
'high  ideals'  and  dilates  upon  our  debt  to  'German  culture, 
German  learning,  German  thought.'  He  repeatedly  speaks  of 
what  his  friends  say  to  him  on  the  subject  of  the  war.  What 
his  real  friends  should  say  to  him  is  what  Professor  Love  joy 
of  Johns  Hopkins,  has  said :  'To  not  a  few  Americans  the  spec- 
tacle presented  of  late  by  the  leaders  of  German  science  and 
philosophy  seems  scarcely  less  than  what  a  sincere  lover  of 
Germany  has  called  it — 'the  greatest  moral  tragedy  of  the 


That  I  am  not  alone  in  being  irritated  is  shown  by 
numerous  articles  in  our  most  influential  journals. 

The  attention  of  Americans  is  called,  for  example  (119) 
to  the  bitter  comment  of  the  KolniscJie  Zeitung,  the  semi- 
official organ  of  the  German  Government,  upon  the  full 
statement  issued  by  our  Department  of  State,  reciting  all 
the  official  international  activities  of  our  government  since 
the  beginning  of  the  war.  It  was  clearly  convincing  as  to 
the  absolute  neutrality  that  had  been  observed  in  regard  to 
all  the  matters  dealt  with.  But  the  German  paper  de- 
scribed it  as  the  work  of  "the  mouthpiece  of  the  brutal 
British  standpoint/'  added  that  "American  neutrality  is 
only  a  thin  veil,  behind  which  is  concealed  eagerness  to  do 
England  a  good  turn,"  and  concluded:  "If  America  re- 
epects  only  brute  force,  then  we  shall  give  full  play  to 
brute  force." 

The  threat  is  insulting,  but  not  surprising,     (jiving  a 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  243 

"full  play  to  brute  force"  would  require  no  change  in  Ger- 
man methods  or  German  doctrines. 

Our  American  paper  which   notes  the   above   incident 
(120),  continues: 

"Our  German  friends,  both  in  this  country  and  abroad,  ought 
to  consider  the  question  whether,  in  addition  to  being  irritated 
themselves,  justly  or  otherwise,  they  do  not  irritate  others. 
They  cannot  drive  Americans  out  of  neutrality,  but  they  may 
make  it  hard  to  be  both  neutral  and  non- irritated.  This  result 
may  be  brought  about  in  various  ways.  One  of  them  would 
be  an  effort  to  band  together  German- Americans  as  a  group 
entirely  apart  from  their  fellow-citizens,  swayed  more  by  race 
than  by  patriotism.  Professor  Ostwald,  of  Leipzig,  early  in  the 
war  expressed  the  view  that  it  was  the  mission  of  Germany 
to  'organize  Europe.'  For  this  he  was  rebuked  by  the  univer- 
sity authorities,  who  repudiated  his  suggestion.  At  any  rate, 
the  United  States  does  not  wish  to  be  'organized5  in  any  such 
way,  as  some  German- Americans  have  proposed ;  and  foolish  talk 
about  it  is  distinctly  irritating.  So  is  such  a  fantastic  exag- 
geration as  that  fallen  into  by  Dr.  Dernburg  in  his  speech  at 
Minneapolis  last  week.  He,  in  general,  has  been  the  most 
discreet,  as  he  has  been  the  ablest,  of  the  men  in  charge  of 
the  German  propaganda  in  this  country,  but  on  this  occasion 
his  hand  lost  its  cunning.  He  gravely  argued  that  the  Allies 
were  really  making  war  upon  the  United  States.  And  then  he 
went  on  to  explain  that,  if  we  did  not  do  something  to  help 
Germany  win,  Germany  would  learn  how  to  get  on  without 
American  exports.  In  place  of  wheat,  she  will  eat  rye;  for 
lumber,  she  will  substitute  steel;  instead  of  copper,  she  will 
make  use  of  'alloys  of  cheaper  metals,'  and,  finally,  dropping 
cotton,  she  will  go  back  to  the  use  of  flax!  Americans  cannot 
help  laughing  at  this,  but  there  is  necessarily  a  certain  tinge 
of  irritation  in  the  laughter. 

"Italy  is  another  neutral  country  in  which  the  German  cam- 
paign of  apology,  defence,  and  resentment  has  not  had  the 
happiest  effects.  An  Italian  colleague  rather  roughly  handles, 
in  the  Corriere  delta  Sera,  the  embattled  German  professors. 
It  is  Professor  Piero  Giacosa,  of  the  University  of  Turin.  He 
passes  in  review  the  various  deliverances  of  Professors  Eucken, 


244  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

Harnack,  and  Wundt,  and  gives  particular  attention  to  the 
famous  'round  robin'  of  the  eighty-nine  elite  of  the  German 
universities.  This  has  been  writ  in  Italian — far  from  'choice/ 
Professor  Giacosa  asserts.  Upon  it  he  makes  very  much  the 
comment  uttered  by  President  Hibben,  of  Princeton,  that  it  is 
surprising  to  find  eminent  philosophers  signing  a  statement  so 
full  of  logical  contradictions  and  unverified  assertions.  Science, 
declares  the  Italian  professor,  should  be  the  same  thing  in  war 
as  in  peace.  He  adds  that  'truth  cannot  be  mobilized.'  If  there 
is  any  justification  of  war,  it  must  be  truth  and  right;  but 
'this  truth  and  right  ought  to  be  human — not  purely  German.' 
"A  German  professor  has  sought  to  explain  the  ferocious 
exhortations  of  the  Kaiser,  addressed  to  the  German  troops 
setting  out  for  China,  as  due  to  a  'momentaneous  nervosity.' 
The  German  propagandists  should  pause  to  reflect  whether  their 
exertions  are  not  producing  among  all  neutrals  a  nervosity 
something  more  than  momentaneous." 

As  this  book  goes  to  press  there  appears  (121)  a  sum- 
mary of  American  opinion,  that  covers  the  entire  country 
and  which  I  therefore  quote,  in  part,  as  a  final  contribution 
not  only  to  this  study  of  the  extent  and  the  aims  of  the 
German  propaganda,  but  also  as  evidence  of  the  way  in 
which  it  is  impressing  the  average  American : 

"Although  the  nation-wide  organization  launched  in  Washing- 
ton on  January  30th  by  fifty-eight  representative  German- 
Americans  declares  its  chief  aim  to  be  the  re-establishment  of 
'genuine  American  neutrality/  its  critics  do  not  hesitate  to  de- 
nounce it  as  an  attempt  to  coerce  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment into  taking  an  actively  pro-German  stand.  'The  wicked- 
ness of  the  scheme  lies  in  its  purpose  to  create  friction  between 
England  and  the  United  States/  declares  the  Boston  Transcript. 
The  men  behind  the  movement,  says  the  Springfield  Republican, 
reveal  themselves  as  'more  German  than  American/  and  the 
New  York  Times  is  convinced  that  'never  since  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Republic  has  any  body  of  men  assembled  here 
who  were  more  completely  subservient  to  a  foreign  Power 
and  to  foreign  influence,  and  none  ever  proclaimed  the  un- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  245 

American  spirit  more  openly.'  'The  sole  object  of  the  promoters 
of  this  movement  is  to  drive  the  United  States  from  its  present 
position  of  neutrality/  affirms  the  New  York  Herald.  The 
position  they  ask  us  to  abandon,  says  the  New  York  Sun,  is 
'historically,  legally,  and  morally  correct/  while  the  course  they 
urge  upon  us  amounts  virtually  to  'the  enlistment  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  under  the  flag  of  Germany.'  These  men,  declares 
the  New  York  World,  'are  doing  Germany  no  good,  and  them- 
selves much  harm,  by  their  pernicious  pro-German  propaganda.' 
The  movement,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Philadelphia  Public  Led- 
ger, represents  'a  pro-German  plot/  and  the  Brooklyn  Eagle 
suggests  that  the  activities  of  its  promoters  bear  a  close  re- 
semblance to  treason.  .  .  . 

"A  German-American  protest  against  the  program  of  the 
Washington  conference  is  voiced  by  the  New  York  Volkszeitung 
( Labor ) ,  which  denounces  the  movement  as  'a  dangerous  agita- 
tion' which  'seeks  to  embroil  the  United  States  in  a  war  with 
England.'  'Under  the  hypocritical  pretense  of  preserving 
America's  neutrality,  this  organization  would  actually  imperil 
it/  declares  this  workers'  organ,  which  calls  upon  'every  Ger- 
man-American workingman  in  this  country'  to  oppose  the  move- 
ment 'with  all  his  strength.' 

"On  the  other  hand,  the  majority  of  the  German- American 
papers  that  have  reached  us  are  in  accord  with  the  New  York 
fltaats-Zeitung,  the  St.  Louis  Westliche  Post,  and  the  Chicago 
Stauts-Zeitung  in  their  hearty  indorsement  of  the  movement 
launched  by  the  Washington  conference.  In  his  signed  editorial 
in  the  New  York  Staats-Zeitung,  Mr.  Herman  Ridder  declares 
that  the  conference  'was  dominated  by  Americans  and  was 
designed  to  promote  a  policy  which  may  be  tritely  described 
as  "America  for  Americans" ' — a  fact,  he  says,  which  will  be 
made  clear  by  'an  intelligent  and  unbiased  perusal  of  the  reso- 
lutions adopted.'  .  .  . 

"Among  the  men  who  fathered  these  resolutions  we  find 
Dr.  C.  J.  Hexamer,  president  of  the  German- American  National 
Alliance  of  Philadelphia,  an  organization  already  claiming  a 
membership  of  2,000,000;  Congressmen  Bartholdt,  Vollmer, 
Barchfeld,  Lobeck,  and  Porter;  Professors  William  R.  Shep- 
herd, of  Columbia;  Edmund  von  Mach,  of  Harvard;  A.  B. 
'Faust,  of  Cornell;  John  Devoy,  editor  of  the  New  York  GaeUo 


246  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

American;  and  many  editors  of  German-American  papers  and 
heads  of  German- American  societies. 

"Herman  Ridder,  in  his  New  York  Stoat s-Zeitung,  declares 
that  'any  newspaper  in  the  United  States  which  will  not  sub- 
scribe to  these  resolutions  may  be  branded  offhand  as  un- 
American.'  The  call,  he  says,  'was  only  for  the  freedom  of  the 
United  States  from  the  subtle  machinations  of  Great  Britain 
and  the  subserviency  of  our  present  Administration  to  Great 
Britain.' 

"Turning  to  another  organ  of  German- American  opinion,  the 
New  York  Fatherland,  we  find  an  outspoken  editorial  signed  by 
George  Sylvester  Viereck,  one  of  the  delegates  to  the  Washing- 
ton conference  on  organization.  Mr.  Viereck,  like  Mr.  Ridder, 
is  convinced  that  the  platform  adopted  is  one  on  which  every 
American  can  stand.  In  fact,  he  goes  further,  and  declares  that 
'no  man  who  refuses  to  stand  upon  it  is  an  honest  Amerrcan.' 
If  the  resolutions  really  reflected  German- American  opinion,  he 
says,  'they  would  be  ten  times  more  emphatic ! '  We  learn  from 
Mr.  Viereck  that  the  patience  of  the  German- Americans  'is  at 
an  end,'  and  that  henceforth  they  'will  fight  as  a  unit.'  'If 
you  say  that  we  are  not  Americans,'  he  declares,  'then  you  will 
have  to  change  your  conception  of  American.'  He  goes  on  with 
these  frank  statements: 

"  'We  are  tired  of  playing  the  part  of  Cinderella  in  American 
politics.  We  claim  our  seat  at  the  banquet-table.  If  you  say 
that  we  are  not  Americans,  then  you  will  have  to  change  your 
conception  of  American.  We  refuse  to  be  strangled  by  the  dead 
hand  of  the  past  reaching  from  the  graves  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  into  the  living  present.  We  shall  rewrite  the  word 
American,  to  the  extent  of  our  power,  in  terms  of  our  own 
ethnic  complexion.  .  .  . 

"'We  have  suffered  much  without  complaint.  But  our  pa- 
tience is  at  an  end.  .  .  . 

"  'You  have  sown  the  storm,  you  shall  reap  the  whirlwind. 
You  have  refused  to  listen  to  our  reasoning.  You  were  deaf  to 
our  pleas.  We  shall  go  into  the  arena  of  politics.  We  shall 
try  to  beat  you  at  your  own  game.  One  hundred  and  seventy 
members  of  Congress  are  of  Irish  extraction.  There  is  no  rea- 
son why  they  should  not  be  joined  by  one  hundred  and  seventy 
of  German  extraction.  There  is  no  reason  why  we  should  not 
labor  for  the  election  of  men  of  our  own  blood  who  are  in  accord 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  247 

with  our  principles,  which  are  also  the  principles  of  true 
Americanism. 

"  'We  are  with  America,  right  or  wrong,  at  all  times.  But 
we  prefer  America  right  to  America  wrong.  We  now  propose 
to  set  America  right.' 

"President  Wilson  is  quoted  in  Washington  dispatches  as 
saying  that  the  efforts  of  organizations  to  influence  this  Gov- 
ernment's action  in  regard  to  the  war  are  'extremely  embar- 
rassing,' and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  all  citizens  of  this  country 
to  'think  of  America  first.'  He  is  also  credited  with  the  remark 
that  'the  present  international  situation  should  not  be  capi- 
talized by  standpat  Representatives  to  play  petty  politics.'  But 
if  we  may  judge  by  the  comment  of  the  St.  Louis  Mississippi 
Blatter,  political  embarrassment  for  the  present  Adiministra- 
tion  is  part  of  the  new  league's  program.  Says  the  St.  Louis 
paper : 

"  'This  move  will  work  a  revolution,  as  the  candidates  at  the 
next  election  will  stand  for  neutrality  and  will  not  dance  to  the 
tune  of  the  pipes  of  the  State  Department  at  Washington.' 

"A  long-distance  but  interested  observer  of  the  situation,  the 
Berliner  Tageblatt,  is  confident  that  'when  the  German- Ameri- 
cans and  the  Irish  hold  together  they  are  a  power  in  the 
United  States  which,  in  certain  circumstances,  can  decide  the 
Presidency.'  And  it  is  generally  believed  in  Washington,  ac- 
cording to  the  correspondent  of  the  New  York  Sun,  that  the 
league  will  be  'a'  formidable  factor  in  the  approaching  Presi- 
dential primaries  and  the  1916  campaign.'  This  aspect  of  its 
proposed  activities  comes  in  for  special  condemnation  at  the 
hands  of  our  press.  This  movement  to  take  international  ques- 
tions into  national  politics  'is  obviously  intended  to  serve  the 
interests  of  Germany  only,'  remarks  the  Philadelphia  Public 
Ledger,  and  the  Brooklyn  Eagle  describes  it  as  'unfurling  a 
foreign  flag  at  Washington.'  The  attempt  to  'line-up'  the  'so- 
called  German  vote'  and  use  it  as  a  club  in  American  politics, 
says  the  New  York  Herald,  is  'foolish,  futile,  and  dangerous.' 
To  the  New  York  Sun  the  effort  represents  'presumptuous  stu- 
pidity and  arrogant  disloyalty.'  The  new  organization  can  best 
'aid  in  eliminating  all  undue  foreign  influence  from  American 
life/  remarks  the  Springfield  Republican,  'by  promptly  dis- 
banding.' Its  program  in  regard  to  candidates  for  public  office, 


248  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

says  the  New  York  Globe,  is  an  effort  to  coerce  by  political 
boycott.    The  same  paper  adds: 

"  'The  present  attempt  will  be  rebuked  if  it  gathers  enough 
headway  to  be  a  menace.  The  political  boycott  that  the  reso- 
lution proclaims  will  be  futile.  It  will  attract  votes  to  the 
proscribed.  Those  who  wish  to  increase  pro-German  sentiment 
in  this  country  have  committed  a  great  blunder  by  a  threat 
which  will  be  generally  and  properly  interpreted  as  indicating 
a  desire  to  put  the  interests  and  the  ideals  of  another  country 
first.' " 

It  is  difficult,  in  spite  of  all  this  evidence,  to  believe  that 
there  is  any  real  danger  from  persons  who,  when  their 
"Fatherland"  is  in  deadly  peril,  pass  resolutions  in\  regard 
to  it,  and  remain  at  a  distance  of  three  thousand  miles  to 
sing  about  it  vociferously. 

Many  of  us  are  asking  the  questions  propounded  by  Miss 
Eepplier:  (122) 

"If  the  German- Americans  are  consumed  with  love  for  their 
Fatherland,  and  for  their  Fatherland  alone,  why,  we  wonder, 
did  they  not  stay  upon  that  sacred  soil?  This  pleasure  and 
privilege  might  have  been  theirs  without  the  asking,  and  they 
resigned  it  as  alacritously  as  though  paternal  rule  and  military 
service  found  no  favor  in  their  eyes.  Why,  when  they  came  to 
the  United  States,  did  they  not  remain  German  citizens,  and 
liable  to  be  summoned  to  their  country's  aid,  instead  of  hasten- 
ing to  swear  allegiance  to  a  Constitution  which  they  regard 
only  as  a  convenience  and  a  protection?  Why,  when  the  decla- 
ration of  war  found  them  in  Munich,  or  Frankfort,  or  Berlin, 
did  they  scuttle  home  as  fast  as  ships  could  carry  them,  clam- 
orously declaring  themselves  American  citizens  in  Germany, 
and  singing  the  'Wacht  am  Rhein'  with  ever-increasing  fervor 
as  they  neared  the  friendly  shores  of  New  York?  Why,  instead 
of  forming  political  parties  to  support  'with  weapons  of  the 
spirit  [a  fancy  name  for  votes]  all  endeavors  in  the  interests  of 
Germanism' — which  is  a  denial  of  neutrality  and  citizenship — 
do  they  not  go  bravely  back  and  strike  one  honest  blow  in  open 
battle  for  their  imperiled  Fatherland? 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  TEE  WAR  249 

"The  trenches  of  Flanders  and  the  snowfields  of  Poland  await 
these  loyal  sons  of  Germany,  and,  while  many  dry  eyes  will  wit- 
ness their  departure,  we  owe  and  give  unfaltering  respect  to 
men  gallant  enough  to  lay  down  their  lives  for  their  country." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

How   Much    Reliance   is  to   be    Placed    Upon   Statements 
Emanating  from  Germany  at  This  Time? 

We  have  been  deluged  with  complaints  of  the  "unfair- 
ness" with  which  Germany's  case  has  been  presented  to  the 
world,  the  "lies"  that  have  been  told  about  her,  the  "dou- 
ble facedness"  of  many  of  our  newspapers.  Even  the  Ger- 
man Chancellor — the  same  chancellor  who  on  July  38th 
was,  according  to  Mr.  Beck,  guilty  of  a  "pitiful  and  insin- 
cere quibble,"  and  whose  Secretary  of  State  on  July  29th 
he  says  told  a  "stupid  falsehood" — on  September  2d,  by 
authority  of  the  Emperor,  took  the  trouble  to  convey  to  the 
American  people  his  confidence  that  it  would  not  "allow 
itself  to  be  deceived  through  the  war  of  falsehood  which  our 
enemies  are  conducting  against  us." 

We  know  what  to  think  of  the  Chancellor's  veracity. 
The  small  fry — the  Miinsterbergs  and  Hilprechts — are 
shrill  in  their  clamorous  accusations  of  unfairness  and 
mendacity,  includng  all  their  opponents  and  some  of  us. 
Dr.  Hilprecht,  Heaven  save  the  mark,  calls  Sir  Edward 
Grey  an  "arch  deceiver,"  and  accuses  (123) 

"all  our  four  principal  enemies,  against  whom  thus  far  battles 
have  been  fought — the  Belgians,  the  English,  the  French  and 
the  Russians — government,  soldiers  and  population  alike,  of 
having  wilfully,  cowardly  and  cruelly,  broken  the  sacred  pledges 
given  by  their  representatives  at  The  Hague  conference  before 
God  and  mankind." 

(250) 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  251 

In  support  of  one  part  of  this  statement,  he  says : 

"The  British  dum-dum  cartridges  taken  from  the  first 
original  package,  opened  in  the  presence  of  the  war  correspon- 
dents, show  the  inscription,  'Art  Dept.  Ive.'  at  the  bottom  of 
their  brass  casings." 

One  would  think  that  he'd  be  chary  of  adducing  "inscrip- 
tions" as  evidence  of  anything. 

Fortunately,  we  have  a  better  test  of  Germany's  reli- 
ability as  to  truth  at  this  juncture  than  could  be  afforded 
by  either  Chancellors  or  archaeologists. 

Perhaps  the  most  astonishing  effort  to  influence  Ameri- 
can opinion  is  the  73-page  pamphlet  entitled  "Truth  About 
Germany :  Facts  About  the  War."  If  it  had  been  headed 
"Falsehoods  About  Germany:  Lies  About  the  War"  the 
title  would  have  been  more  accurately  descriptive.  Profes- 
sor Love  joy,  of  Johns  Hopkins,  has  fitly  characterized  it  as 
"a  clumsy  compilation  of  fictions,  irrelevancies  and  vulgar 
appeals  to  what  are  apparently  conceived  to  be  American 
prejudices."  He  specifies  some  of  the  direct  falsehoods : 

"1.  The  pamphlet  (124)  says  that  Austria-Hungary  was  able 
to  prove  that  the  Servian  government  had  been  responsible 
for  the  plan  of  the  assassination  at  Sarajevo. 

"2.  Austria-Hungary  addressed  to  the  Servian  government 
a  number  of  demands  which  aimed  at  nothing  but  the  suppresr 
sion  of  the  anti-Austrian  propaganda.  Servia  was  on  the  point 
of  accepting  the  demand,  when  there  arrived  a  dispatch  from 
St.  Petersburg,  and  Servia  mobilized.  Then  Austria  had  to 
act.  Thus  arose  the  Austro- Servian  war. 

"3.  Great  Britain  asked  that  Germany  should  allow  French 
and  Belgian  troops  to  form  on  Belgian  territory  for  a  march 
against  our  frontier  .  .  .  England  and  France  were 
resolved  not  to  respect  the  neutrality  of  Belgium 
(They)  did  not  give  up  their  plan  of  attacking  Germany 
through  Belgium. 


252  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"4.  England  aims  at  being  mistress  of  the  Old  World  in 
order  to  occupy  either  an  equal,  or  a  menacing,  position  towards 
the  New  World.  For  this  purpose  she  has  encouraged  this  war." 

Professor  Love  joy  (125)  adds: 

"Every  American  recipient  of  the  pamphlet  who  subsequently 
took  the  trouble  to  examine  the  entire  published  evidence  in  the 
case  must  have  speedily  discovered  the  statements  of  specific 
historical  fact  in  the  passages  cited  to  be  either  direct  false- 
hoods or  suggestiones  falsi.  But  it  should  be  added  that  the 
publication  in  question  is  marked  by  a  yet  more  singular  sup- 
pressio  veri;  it  contains  no  hint  of  what  are  perhaps  the  two 
most  decisive  of  the  'facts  about  the  war.'  These,  since  they 
/seem  to  have  been  less  emphasized  in  America  than  they  deserve 
to  be,  should  perhaps  be  indicated  specifically. 

"It  is  a  fact  undisclosed  in  the  pamphlet  that  on  July  30, 
and  again  in  a  modified  form  on  July  31,  the  Russian  govern- 
ment communicated  to  the  German  government  an  undertaking 
to  'stop  all  military  preparations'  (or  'to  maintain  a  waiting 
attitude')  if  Austria  would  consent  to  'stay  the  march  of  her 
troops  on  Servian  territory  and,  recognizing  that  the  Austro- 
Servian  conflict  has  assumed  the  character  of  a  question  of 
general  European  interest,  to  admit  that  the  Great  Powers  may 
examine  the  satisfaction  which  Servia  can  accord  to  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  government  without  injury  to  her  rights  as  a  sover- 
eign state  and  to  her  independence.' 

"It  is  a  fact  equally  undisclosed  in  this  repository  of  informa- 
tion about  the  causes  of  the  war,  that  on  the  morning  of  July 
31,  Sir  Edward  Grey  declared  to  the  German  Ambassador  in 
London  that  'if  Germany  could  get  any  reasonable  proposal  put 
forward  which  made  it  clear  that  Germany  and  Austria  were 
striving  to  preserve  European  peace,  and  that  Russia  and 
France  would  be  unreasonable  if  they  rejected  it,'  he  would 
'support  it  at  St.  Petersburg  and  Paris,  and  go  the  length  of 
saying  that  if  Russia  and  France  would  not  accept  it  his 
Majesty's  government  would  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  the 
consequences.' 

"The  most  illuminating  'truth  about  Germany'  is  that,  on 
the  same  day,  with  these  two  pledges  before  it,  the  government 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  253 

at  Berlin  sent  to  Russia  and  to  France  ultimata  which  were 
certain,  and  therefore  were  manifestly  designed,  to  render  war 
within  twenty-four  hours  inevitable." 

% 

The  pamphlet  "Truth  About  Germany"  was  prepared  by 
a  Board  of  Editors  which  included  many  of  the  best-known 
men  in  letters,  science,  finance  and  German  public  life.  As 
Lovejoy  says,  the  pamphlet  seems  to  show  that  the^very 
class  that  among  cultivated  persons  of  other  countries  has 
gained  for  Germany  its  greatest  distinction, 

"has  signally  failed  at  the  most  critical  moment  in  German 
history,  to  perform  its  proper  function — the  function  of 
detached  criticism,  of  cool  consideration,  of  insisting  that  facta 
and  all  the  relevant  facts,  be  known  and  faced.  It  appears  to 
be  shouting  with  the  rest  for  a  wholly  avoidable  war  of  which, 
in  nearly  all  non-German  eyes,  the  moral  indefensibility  seems 
exceeded  only  by  its  fatal  unwisdom  from  a  purely  national 
point  of  view." 

The  astounding  spectacle  presented  by  this  Board  of 
Editors  is  partly  explained  by  their  relation  to  the  State. 
It  pays  them,  it  promotes  them,  it  gives  them — or  with- 
holds from  them — social  and  official  honors  and  dignities. 

Their  countrymen,  Nietzsche,  has  prophetically  dealt 
with  this  situation : 

"The  State  has  never  any  concern  with  truth,  but  only  with 
the  truth  useful  to  it,  or,  rather,  with  anything  that  is  useful 
to  it,  be  it  truth,  half-truth,  or  error.  A  coalition  between 
State  and  philosophy  has  only  meaning  when  the  latter  can 
promise  to  be  unconditionally  useful  to  the  State,  to  put  its 
well-being  higher  than  truth.  It  would  certainly  be  a  noble 
thing  for  the  State  to  have  truth  as  a  paid  servant;  but  it 
knows  well  enough  that  it  is  the  essence  of  truth  to  be  paid 
nothing  and  serve  nothing."  (See  pp.  277-81.) 


254  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

But  in  view  of  the  persistent  and  extraordinary  efforts 
being  made  by  the  Germans  to  influence  public  opinion  in 
America,  it  seems  worth  while  to  consider  further,  and  at 
some  length,  the  question  of  the  credibility  of  their  official 
and  semi-official  statements. 

It  should  be  said,  at  the  outset,  that  it  is  almost  ludicrous, 
when  one  comes  to  read  carefully  the  arguments  on  behalf 
of  Germany  with  which  this  country  is  being  flooded,  to 
note  the  constant  contradictions.  There  is  apparently  no 
statement  made  by  any  one  of  them  that  is  not  traversed  or 
denied  by  another  of  them. 

Two  of  these  missionaries  in  this  cultureless  land — - 
Dernburg,  the  avowed  emissary  from  Germany,  and  Miin- 
sterberg,  the  type  of  the  pro-German  professor,  who  has 
made  his  home  here — have  been  peculiarly  unfortunate,  as 
their  differences  go  to  the  very  root  and  foundation  of  the 
war.  To  be  sure,  all  their  fellows  pooh-pooh  Bernhardi 
now;  they  all  represent  his  books  as  having  been  without 
influence;  they  say  that  they  were  not  read  in  America,  and 
that  almost  no  one  reads  them  in  Germany.  They  admit, 
with  reluctance,  that  he  did  write  books,  but  they  adopt  the 
old  method  of  minimizing  guilt,  hallowed  by  the  young 
female  in  the  pages  of  "Midshipman  Easy,"  by  describing 
his  editions  as  "very  little  ones."  He  has  a  fatal  fascina- 
tion for  some  of  them,  however,  and  even  while  repudiating 
him,  they  often  show  themselves  his  disciples. 

Miinsterberg  has  been  more  successful  than  most  in 
evading  him,  but  Dernburg  has  been  unable,  while  denying 
his  influence  and  representative  character,  to  avoid  defend- 
ing his  teachings. 

Powys  says:  (126) 

"The  success  of  the  German  campaign  of  anti-Allies  propa- 
ganda  has  heen  less  marked  than  its  energy  and  patriotism 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  255 

deserve.  The  cause  of  this  lack  of  success  is  to  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  the  leading  German  propagandists  in  this  country 
have  chosen  to  adopt  diametrically  opposite  points  of  view, 
points  of  view  that  answer  one  another.  For  instance,  Dr. 
Dernburg's  reply  to  Lord  Bryce's  war-statement,  whether  it 
refuted  Bryce  or  not,  manages  completely  to  dispose  of  Profes- 
sor Munsterberg. 

"Miinsterberg,  .  .  ,  discussing  Treitschke  and  Bern- 
hardi as  'hashish-dreamers'  and  'courageous  clowns,'  adopts  an 
idealistic,  innocent-aggrieved  tone;  calling  attention  to  Ger- 
many's 'pacific  and  industrious  population,'  with  its  one  wish, 
to  'develop  its  agricultural,  and  industrial,  its  cultural  and 
moral  resources.'  Dr.  Dernburg,  however,  is  less  inclined  to 
cater  so  smoothly  to  American  public  opinion.  He  appears  to 
have  a  simpler,  more  direct  mind  than  the  professor,  and  to  be 
more  inclined  to  go  honestly  to  the  root  of  the  matter. 

"For  instance,  in  an  article,  published  in  The  Sun,  Dr.  Dern- 
burg, although  he  firmly  declares  that  he  holds  Lord  Bryce 
wrong  in  connecting  the  German  people  with  Bernhardi,  yet 
makes  it  quite  plain  that  he  thinks  there  is  a  great  deal  to  be 
said  far  Bernhardi's  attitude.  The  greater  part  of  his  article 
is  indeed  nothing  more  or  less  than  an  explanation  of  Bern- 
hardi's  position  and  a  justification  of  it." 

Later  Mr.  Powys  returns  to  the  same  subject : 

"Miinsterberg  adopted  the  line,  more  timid  and  less  honest, 
of  making  a  special  appeal  to  the  American  people  by  represent- 
ing Germany  as  content  with  her  present  position,  her  position 
of  cultural  and  industrial  development,  and  in  no  way  anxious 
to  alter  it.  Bernhardi  has  converted  the  German  people,  has 
converted  Dr.  Dernburg,  to  the  absolute  necessity  of  altering 
it,  if  Germany  as  a  nation  is  to  survive.  Thus  Bernhardi'a 
grand  dictum  of  'world-domination  or  downfall'  becomes  intel- 
ligible; becomes  in  fact  Germany's  motto  in  this  war,  and  the 
motive-power  behind  the  heroism  and  resolution  of  the  German 
people.  . 

"How  ridiculous  is  it,  then,  of  Professor  Munsterberg  to 
endeavor  to  slip  gracefully  into  the  mold  of  American  public 
opinion,  by  finding  the  sole  cause  of  the  war  in  the  expansion 


256  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

of  Russia !  Certainly  one  of  the  causes  of  the  war  is  the  expan- 
sion of  Russia,  but  a  more  direct  and  powerful  cause  is  the 
expansion  of  Germany;  an  expansion  concerning  which  Dr. 
Dernburg  is,  as  he  says,  an  answerable  authority,  'because  I 
have  stood  in  it.' "  (127) 

These  differences  of  the  German  apologists  themselves 
are  among  the  most  instructive  incidents  of  the  war,  and 
have  had  undoubted  effect  upon  the  formation  of  American 
public  opinion.  It  is  not  only  that  their  statements  are  so 
frequently  at  variance  with  the  facts,  but  their  failure  to 
agree  with  one  another  ranges  from  very  serious  to  very 
trivial  matters ;  .from  instances  like  Dr.  Dernburg's  versions 
of  Germany's  attitude  toward  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  com- 
pared with  Germany's  official  statement  of  her  attitude, 
(p.  93)  to  others  like  the  question  of  the  proper  translation 
and  significance  of  "Deutschland  iiber  Alles."  (p.  2S2) 

It  is  right  that  these  differences,  big  and  little,  should, 
whenever  possible,  be  brought  to  public  notice,  and  should 
be  emphasized.  Making  the  fullest  possible  allowance  for 
the  fallibility  of  human  testimony,  they  seem  to  me  to  show, 
not  a  desire  to  inform,  or  legitimately  and  logically  to  con- 
vince the  American  people,  but  rather,  at  any  cost  of  ver- 
acity, or  of  close  adherence  to  facts,  to  hoodwink  and  to 
mislead  them.  Naturally,  misstatements,  exaggerations, 
suppressions  of  vital  data,  and  downright  falsehoods,  can- 
not be  made  to  agree  without  more  careful  consultation 
than  there  has  been  time  or  opportunity  for.  In  addition 
to  disagreement  among  themselves,  it  is  noteworthy,  too, 
that  the  same  writer  is,  on  occasion,  self -contradictory. 

Furthermore  they,  practically  without  exception,  fail  to 
understand  the  controversial  value  of  an  understatement. 
They  write  so  vigorously  to  solicit  the  sympathy  of  Amer- 
icans that  they  overpass  the  boundaries,  not  only  of  credi- 
bility, but  also  those  of  sobriety.  A  laugh  evoked  by  an 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  257 

argument,  intended  to  be  serious  and  concerned  with  in- 
tensely tragic  events,  is  the  most  conclusive  possible  evi- 
dence of  failure.  They  all  claim  too  much.  If  they  would 
claim  less,  we  might  believe  more.  If  they  did  not  white- 
wash so  vigorously,,  we  should  not  suspect  so  much  dirt. 

Let  me  cite,  with  comment,  two  conspicuous  examples. 

Herr  Heinrich  Friedrich  Albert  has  contributed  to  the 
December  issue  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly  a  paper  on  "Ger- 
man Methods  of  Conducting  the  War,"  which  is  more  touch- 
ingly  rose-colored  than  anything  even  Doctor  Dernberg  has 
written.  War,  so  conducted,  far  from  resembling  Hell,  is  a 
pretty  close  approach  to  Heaven.  The  Prussian  soldier,  as 
painted  by  Herr  Albert,  is  what  old-fashioned  people  used 
to  call  "too  good  for  earth/'  Shelley's  apostrophe  to 
Emilia  Viviani, 

"Seraph  of  Heaven!  too  gentle  to  be  human," 

is  the  only  description  which  can  be  found  to  fit  him. 

Of  course  all  charges  of  cruelty  are  swept  aside  as  of  ' 
"psychopathic  origin."  Herr  Albert  wastes  no  time  on 
them,  but  proceeds  at  once  to  make  clear  to  us  the  benig- 
nant nature  of  Zeppelins  and  airships,  which  are  far  more 
"humane"  than  artillery,  and  which,  by  compelling  the 
speedy  surrender  of  a  fortress,  "may  spare  many  thousands 
of  lives  and  property  of  incalculable  value."  Even  when 
the  bombs  are  dropped  upon  cities  not  under  siege  "a  calm 
and  judicious  consideration"  will  soften  our  prejudice 
against  them.  They  were  never  intended,  for  example,  to 
destroy  life  in  Paris.  "The  bombs  were  meant  for  the 
wireless  station  on  the  Eiffel  Tower."  If  the  inconspicuous 
nature  of  the  tower  concealed  it  from  observation,  the 
blame,  we  presume,  rests  with  the  French,  who  should  have 
built  it  higher. 

17 


258  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

As  for  the  burning  of  Louvain,  Herr  Albert  clears  the 
invading  troops  of  all  responsibility,  and  practically  of  all 
participation  in  the  deed.  He  does  not  even  admit,,  with 
those  delightful  German  professors  who  put  forth  their 
appeal  "To  the  Civilized  World/'  that  German  soldiers 
"with  aching  hearts  were  obliged  to  fire  a  part  of  the  town/' 
— a  purely  academic  view 'of  militarism.  Herr  Albert's  sol- 
diers behaved  better  than  that.  All  they  tried  to  do  (and 
who  can  blame  them?)  was  to  defend  themselves  against 
the  furious  attack  of  Lou  vain  civilians.  When,  "during 
this  fighting,  fires  broke  out  which  spread  with  terrific  speed 
over  the  city/'  they  risked  their  lives  to  rescue  the  Tower 
Hall,  and  "works  of  art  endangered  by  the  flames.3'  All 
this  time  the  Louvainers,  indifferent  to  the  fate  of  their 
city,  fired  "incessantly"  at  the  brave  men  engaged  in  the 
work  of  preservation.  "Unfortunately  it  was  not  found 
possible  to-  save  the  valuable  library  of  the  University." 

What -a  picture  of  magnanimity !  Nothing  like  it  in  his- 
tory. Nothing  much  like  it  in  fiction.  Why  not  accept  the 
'simpler  statement  of  a  patriotic  German  editor  who 
announced  that  the  Belgians,  instigated  by  the  English, 
burned  Louvain,  in  order  to  "foul  the  fair  fame  of  Ger- 
many." 

The  levying  of  indemnities  is  another  point  "much  mis- 
understood." The  practice  seems  at  first  sight  an  unkind 
one,  and  there  are  some  troublesome  Hague  regulations 
which,  if  respected,  would  spoil  all  a  conqueror's  sport. 
But  Herr  Albert  assures  us  that  these  huge  sums  are  de- 
manded "to  discourage  sniping,  and  for  the  administration 
of  occupied  territory."  They  are  in  the  nature  of  ordinary 
taxes.  True,  no  dollar  of  them  has  been  wasted  so  far  in 
feeding  the  starving,  or  sheltering  the  homeless  Belgians. 
This  evidently  does  not  come  within  the  province  of  prac- 
tical administration.  But  if  Belgians  starve,  the  fault 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  TEE  WAR  259 

(and  this  we  never  should  have  suspected)  lies  at  the  door 
of  England.  "There  seem  to  be  plans  under  consideration 
by  the  German  Government  to  feed  the  Belgian  population 
by  importing  food  stuffs/'  says  Herr  Albert  vaguely;  and 
these  nebulous  plans  are  in  danger  of  being  frustrated  by 
England's  wicked  efforts  to  seize  such  food  stuffs  as  con- 
traband of  war.  How  can  kind-hearteed  Germany  feed 
innocent  Belgium  when  England  stays  her  hand  ? 

The  destruction  of  the  Cathedral  of  Kheims  is  the  epi- 
sode which  of  all  others  we  have  least  understood,  and  this 
is  because  we  were,  many  of  us,  ignorant  of  the  amazing 
circumstance  which  made  such  destruction  "a  military 
necessity/'  We  are  ignorant  no  longer.  A  German  official 
report,  quoted  at  length  by  Herr  Albert,  states  that  the 
Gommander-in-Chief  gave  orders  to  spare  the  Cathedral, 
"so  long  as  the  enemy  refrained  from  using  it  to  his  advan- 
tage." The  French,  thinking  to  profit  by  such  forbearance, 
despatched  "a  military  observer"  to  the  roof.  This  ob- 
server, unlike  the  Eiffel  Tower,  was  visible  from  afar.  "It 
was  necessary  to  dislodge  him/'  and  by  the  time  he  was 
dislodged — though,  the  firing  then  ceased  instantly — the 
cathedral  was  in  ruins.  It  sounds  like  a  locomotive  run- 
ning over  an  ant.  The  roof — with  that  tendency  to  spon- 
taneous combustion  which  marks  the  propinquity  of  Ger- 
man troops — "burst  into  flames;"  but  "the  responsibility 
rests  with  the  enemy,  who  attempted  to  misuse  a  monu- 
ment of  architectural  art  under  the  protection  of  the  white 
flag."  (p.  296) 

So  far  the  report.  Then  follows  a  priceless  sentence  of 
Herr  Albert's  very  own.  "For  a  German,  the  fact  that  an 
official  communication  is  issued  by  the  army  headquarters 
is  proof  sufficient  of  its  absolute  truth  to  facts."  This  is 
sublime.  It  reminds  us  of  nothing  but  Prester  John  ex- 
patiating on  the  qualities  of  his  countrymen.  "No  vice  is 


260  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

tolerated  in  our  midst,  and  with  us  no  one  lies."  (128) 
Another  excellent  sample  (of  the  pleas  with  which  Ger- 
many is  flooding  this  country)  is  found  in  the  article  en- 
titled, "Germany's  Answer"  (129),  by  Professor  Delbriick. 
The  author  is  Professor  of  History  in  the  University  of 
Berlin,,  and  is,  therefore,  Treitschke's  successor.  To  a 
careless  or  an  uninformed  reader  the  article  might  seem 
strongly  and  almost  convincingly  to  justify  Germany's 
course.  But  a  little  critical  examination  would  soon  dis- 
pel this  view. 

As  Miss  Eepplier  did  me  the  honor  of  consulting  me  with 
reference  to  a  letter  she  later  sent  to  an  American  maga- 
zine (130)  in  reply  to  Professor  Delbriick's  paper,  and  as 
our  views  absolutely  coincide,  I  shall  let  her  speak  for  me : 
"This,"  she  says, 

"should  be  of  value  to  American  readers  as  embodying 
those  ideals  made  familiar  to  us  by  Professor  Treitschke 
and  General  von  Bernhardi — ideals  which  soft-spoken  Ger- 
mans have  endeavored  to  persuade  us  are  without  influence 
in  Berlin.  It  should  also  be  of  interest  to  American  readers 
as  illustrating  on  a  large  scale  the  difference  between  a  state- 
ment and  a  fact.  It  is  a  series  of  assumptions  proffered  as 
though  they  were  proven.  We  are  asked  to  base  our  judgment, 
not  on  what  has  occurred,  which  we  know;  but  on  what  might 
have  occurred,  of  which  we  know  nothing;  not  on  things  done, 
which  are  called  evidence;  but  on  things  surmised,  which  have 
no  legal  or  logical  existence. 

"Professor  Delbriick  is  not  soft-spoken.  Let  me  hasten  to  do 
him  that  justice.  He  says  distinctly  that  Austria  cannot 
'tolerate  the  existence  of  the  Greater  Servian  idea  either  within 
its  borders  or  on  its  frontiers';  that  'it  was  inconceivable  Aus- 
tria should  content  herself  with  the  punishment  of  the  assassins 
and  their  accomplices,  even  on  the  largest  scale' ;  and  that  'the 
only  acceptable  redress  for  the  murder  of  the  Archducal  pair 
was  to  put  an  end  once  and  for  all  to  the  Greater  Servian 
aspirations/  to  demand  terms  which  would  put  Servia  under 
Austria's  'permanent  control.' 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  361 

"This  is  plain  speaking.  We  may  or  we  may  not  agree  with 
it.  We  may  or  we  may  not  think  that  three  millions  of  people 
should  be  robbed  of  their  national  life  because  a  shameful  mur- 
der was  committed  at  Serajevo,  with  the  possible — but  unproven 
— connivance  of  Servian  officials.  Things  which  are  'inconceiv- 
able' to  Professor  Delbriick  are  perfectly  conceivable  to  his 
readers.  The  amazing,  and  amusing,  statement  made  by  this 
amazing,  and  at  times  amusing,  German  is  that  Austria's 
ultimatum  (the  most  bullying  document  of  recorded  history) 
was  born  of  'dire  extremity/  and  was  sent  in  the  interest  of 
peace.  'Studied  politeness/  he  affirms,  would  have  fed  Servia's 
swollen  pride,  and  might  have  beguiled  the  Czar  into  threats 
from  which  he  'could  not  draw  back.'  After  which  powerful 
and  conclusive  argument,  the  writer  adds  serenely:  'We  have 
seen  that  if  Austria  had  made  her  demands  less  sharp,  sooner 
or  later  the  war  would  have  broken  out  just  the  same.' 

"  'We' — the  readers — have  seen  nothing  of  the  kind.  We 
have  heard,  but  we  have  not  seen.  We  have  read,  but  we  do 
not  of  necessity  believe.  Professor  Delbriick  tells  us  that  Eng- 
land refused  in  this  great  crisis  to  act  'as  honor  dictated/ 
she  'suppressed  all  regard  for  the  common  welfare  of  European 
civilization.'  He  assures  us  that  Russia  represents  'the  most 
pernicious  despotism  that  the  world  knows.'  But  when  Ger- 
many accuses  other  nations  of  despotism  and  dishonor,  we  are 
forcibly  reminded  of  that  famous  passage  in  'The  Fortunes  of 
Nigel'  (unknown  we  fear  to  Berlin  professors),  where  'Baby 
Charles'  lays  down  the  guilt  of  dissimulation,  and  'Steenie' 
lectures  on  the  turpitude  of  incontinence.  Russia  is  despotic. 
We  used  to  call  her  cruel.  But  Germany's  campaign  in  Belgium 
has  forever  altered  our  standards  of  despotism  and  cruelty. 
Before  its  blackness  the  Slavic  sins  grow  pale.  It  is  a  blot 
which  can  never  be  effaced  from  the  escutcheon  of  the  civilized 
world.  It  has  made  the  very  name  of  civilization  ring  like  a 
mockery  in  our  ears. 

"In  defence  of  this  campaign  Professor  Delbriick  marshals 
his  most  inconclusive  arguments.  In  defence  of  this  campaign 
Germany  will  be  kept  busy  arguing  until  the  end  of  time.  Only 
a  good  cause  can  sustain  itself  without  props.  Why  tell  us 
that  the  conduct  of  the  German  Emperor,  the  Chancellor,  the 
General  Staff,  'all  very  sagacious  personages/  'cannot  be  logio 
ally  explained,  unless  they  were  sure  that,  not  onlv  would 


262  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

England  join  the  ranks  of  our  enemies  under  any  circumstances, 
but  that  the  united  Allies  would  themselves  afterward  make 
their  way  through  Belgium'?  Is  this  considered  to  be  evidence? 
Can  we  prove  an  asserted  fact  by  offering  it  as  an  -explanation 
for  somebody's  conduct.  A  robs  B.  A's  behaviour  cannot  be 
'logically  explained,'  unless  he  were  sure  that  C  meant  to  rob 
him.  Therefore  C  is  to  blame. 

The  plain  truth  remains  that  England  did  not  violate  Bel- 
gium's neutrality,  and  Germany  did ;  that  France  did  not  march 
her  armies  across  Belgium's  frontier  and  Germany  did;  that 
France  promised  to  respect  the  treaty  she  had  signed,  and 
Germany  refused  to  give  such  a  promise.  How  can  we  argue 
on  the  basis  of  what  might  have  happened,  and  what  has  hap- 
pened? The  one  like  paternity,  is  a  matter  of  conjecture;  the 
other,  like  maternity,  is  a  matter  of  fact.  And  when  Professor 
Delbriick  asks  us  proudly,  can  we  credit  his  'sagacious  person- 
ages' with  a  blunder;  we  answer  humbly  and  truthfully  that 
we  can. 

"As  for  the  naive  regret  that  Germany  found  it  impossible 
to  secure  both  the  moral  advantages  which  would  have  been 
hers  had  she  kept  her  plighted  word  and  the  material  advan- 
tages which  accrued  to  her  from  breaking  it,  this  is  expressed 
with  Teutonic  simplicity.  So,  too,  is  the  confident  assurance 
that  Belgium  violated  her  own  neutrality,  which  is  now  the 
rallying  cry  of  German  apologists.  Because  a  little  nation, 
weak,  but  not  blind,  entertained  reasonable  misgivings,  and 
planned,  to  the  best  of  her  ability,  to  defend  herself,  should 
these  misgivings  prove  well-founded,  she  is  now  accused  of 
being  the  original  aggressor  in  the  quarrel  of  muddying  the 
water  when  the  wolf  came  down  to  drink.  Why,  asks  Professor 
Delbriick  triumphantly  had  Belgium  built  her  forts  on  the 
German,  and  not  on  the  French  border?  'Is  a  country  lying 
between  two  unfriendly  neighbors,  and  taking  military  precau- 
tion against  the  one  of  them,  and  not  against  the  other,  in 
reality  neutral'? 

"  'Two  unfriendly  neighbors ! '  It  is  candid  in  Professor 
Delbriick  to  admit  Germany's  unfriendliness;  but  he  has  no 
warrant  in  assigning  the  same  attitude  to  France.  Belgium 
saw  the  Germanic  strategic  railway,  with  its  admirable  equip- 
ment, built  to  her  frontier.  Had  she  neglected  to  fortify  that 
frontier,  she  would  have  been  criminally  improvident.  When 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  263 

an  armed  house-breaker  plants  a  ladder  against  our  front  wall, 
we  do  not  run  and  barricade  the  back  windows. 

"The  final  paragraph  of  'Germany's  Answer'  invites  a  final 
word  of  comment.  'We,  in  Germany/  says  Professor  Delbriick, 
'have  the  firm  conviction  that  it  is  not  for  our  own  independence 
alone  that  we  are  fighting,  in  this  war,  but  for  the  preservation 
of  the  culture  and  freedom  of  all  peoples.' 

"This  is  more  than  the  world  asks  at  the  Kaiser's  hand. 
Most  nations  prefer  to  look  after  their  own  culture  and  freedom 
in  the  fashion  which  suits  them  best.  And  if  the  present  con- 
dition of  Belgium,  starved,  outraged,  broken  on  the  wheel,  is 
a  sample  of  the  culture  and  freedom  which  are  Germany's 
gift,  we  Americans  pray  Heaven  to  preserve  us  in  ignorance 
and  slavery.' " 

The  material  for  continuing  this  comparison  of  the  state- 
ments of  German  apologists  with  the  truth,  or  with  the 
statements  of  other  German  apologists,  is  so  abundant  that 
it  is  difficult  to  make  a  selection.  Dr.  Dernburg  has  been 
one  of  the  most  prolific  contributors.  We  have  already 
seen  how  he  has  dealt  with  the  violation  of  Belgium  neu- 
trality (pp.  78-83)  and  incidentally  with  the  speech  of  the 
German  Chancellor."  (p.  80) 

It  seems  useful  to  follow  this  indefatigable  agent  on 
another  of  the  trails  he  has  made  since  his  arrival  here. 
He  appeared  before  the  American  public  in  December  as 
the  triumphant  expounder  of  the  so-called  "secret  papers" 
found  at  Brussels.  He  had  the  impudence  to  call  our  atten- 
tion to  "the  guilt  of  the  Belgium  Government,"  and  to  the 
"crime"  of  Belgium.  I  have  elsewhere  discussed  this, 
and  have  quoted  American  editorial  utterances  on  the 
subject.  But  two  other  of  our  papers  have  dealt  with 
him  and  his  scandalous  misrepresentations  in  a  way  that 
brings  out  certain  new  points  in  more  detail.  One  (131) 
said  editorially: 


264  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"We  have  both  the  text  of  the  so-called  'secret  treaties'  said 
to  have  been  found  in  the  archives  of  the  Belgian  General 
Staff  after  the  German  occupation  of  Brussels  and  the  inter- 
pretation put  upon  the  documents  by  the  Kaiser's  ingenious 
spokesmen  in  this  country. 

"The  existence  of  the  secret  papers  discovered  in  Belgium 
has  long  been  heralded  and  public  curiosity  on  all  sides  has 
awaited  with  some  eagerness  the  appearance  of  the  exact  text. 
.  .  .  An  examination  of  the  'secret  papers'  reveals  something 
which  Dr.  Dernburg  may  possibly  not  have  discovered,  and 
which,  as  we  understand  the  case,  radically  affects  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  documents  in  question.  Dr.  Dernburg  says: 

"  'Only  the  prompt  action  at  Liege  that  put  this  important 
railway  center  commanding  the  railway  connections  to  France 
and  Germany  into  German  hands  prevented  the  English  landing 
and  invading  Belgium.' 

"  'The  guilt  of  the  Belgium  Government  ( ! ! )  in  this  matter 
consists  in  making  and  concerting  plans  with  the  English  and 
French  Governments  as  to  what  steps  to  take  in  case  of  war.' 

"  'While  Belgium  pretended  neutrality  and  friendship  toward 
Germany,  it  was  secretly  planning  for  her  defeat  in  a  war 
which  was  considered  unavoidable.' 

"  'The  Imperial  Chancellor  has  declared  that  there  was  irre- 
futable proof  that  if  Germany  did  not  march  through  Belgium 
her  enemies  would.  This  proof,  as  now  being  produced,  is  of 
the  strongest  character.  So  the  Chancellor  was  right  in  appeal- 
ing to  the  law  of  necessity,  although  he  had  to  regret  that  it 
violated  international  law.' 

"A  rough  summary  of  the  Belgian  papers  now  made  public 
might  easily,  without  dishonest  intent  on  the  part  of  the  com- 
piler, give  the  impression  that  as  far  back  as  1906  there  was 
a  confidential  understanding  between  the  Belgian  General  Staff 
and  the  British  (and  also  with  the  French)  military  authori- 
ties for  concerted  action  in  the  event  of  a  European  war;  for 
joint  mobilization;  for  ttie  prompt  employment  of  the  Belgian 
railways  to  introduce  English  and  perhaps  French  troops  into 
Belgian  territory,  and  for  the  general  -conduct  of  a  co-operative 
movement  against  Germany.  This  would  mean  a  secret  plan, 
Belgium's  'crime,'  as  Dr.  Dernburg  calls  it,  to  prostitute  her 
neutrality  to  British  invasion  in  order  to  anticipate  a  possible 
violation  of  neutrality  from  the  German  frontier. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  265 

"The  same  idea  might  be  produced  in  an  impartial  mind  by 
a  hasty  or  not  very  critical  reading  of  the  documents  now  pub- 
lished; particularly  of  Major-General  Dncarme's  confidential 
report  to  the  Belgian  Minister  of  War  in  1906,  concerning  a 
conference  with  the  British  military  attache"  at  Brussels. 

"There  is,  however,  buried  in  the  text  of  this  confidential 
report  one  sentence  which  does  not  seem  to  have  impressed 
Dr.  Dernburg  greatly.  We  quote  it  now,  in  italics : 

"He  [Lieutenant-Colonel  Barnardiston]  proceeded  in  the  fol- 
lowing sense:  The  landing  of  the  English  troops  would  take 
place  at  the  French  coast  in  the  vicinity  of  Dunkirk  and  Calais 
so  as  to  hasten  their  movements  as  much  as  possible.  The 
entry  of  the  English  in  Belgium  would  only  take  place  after  the 
violation  of  our  neutrality  by  Germany.  A  landing  in  Antwerp 
would  take  much  more  time,  because  larger  transports  would 
be  needed  and  because,  on  the  other  hand,  the  safety  would  be 
less  complete." 

"This  certainly  puts  a  somewhat  different  aspect  on  the 
alleged  'criminal'  intentions  of  Belgium.  Instead  of  plotting 
for  concerted  action  with  England  and  France  to  procure  the 
violation  of  her  own  neutrality  in  anticipation  of  Germany's 
movements,  Belgium  appears  as  providing  for  support  in  case 
of  invasion  by  Germany;  a  purpose  on  the  part  of  her  powerful 
neighbor  even  then,  as  it  seems,  expected  or  suspected  at  Brus- 
sels. 

"And  that  is  precisely  what  did  happen  in  and  to  Belgium." 

Dr.  Dernburg  attempted  to  defend  himself  (132)  say- 
ing that  he  "did  not  at  all  overlook  that  sentence  in  the 
1906  document  that  English  troops  are  only  to  be  landed 
in  case  of  a  German  attack.  He  adds :  "I  mention  it  where 
I  refer  to  the  fact  that  in  1906  it  had  only  been  a  con- 
certed action.  The  main  point  is  that  in  the  1912  docu- 
ment there  is  no  such  qualification  any  more/'  (sic.) 

This  flimsy  excuse  is  dealt  with  as  follows:   (133) 

"Dr.  Dernburg's  interpretation  of  the  conversations  in  1906 
between  the  Belgian  General  Ducarme  and  the  British  military 
attache",  Lieutenant-Colonel  Barnardiston,  was  this: 


266  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"  'They  [the  so-called  secret  papers]  show  that  these  conversa- 
tions were  also  held  with  Belgium;  that  the  plans  had  been 
concerted  to  invade  Belgium  with  an  army  of  100,000  men  by 
way  of  three  French  ports — viz.,  Dunkirk,  Calais  and  Boulogne 
— and  that  the  British  plans  even  considered  a  landing  by  way 
of  the  Scheldt,  thus  violating  also  the  Dutch  neutrality. 

"  'The  documents,  giving  all  the  details  as  translated  and  show- 
ing that  Belgian  railway  cars  were  to  be  sent  to  the  named 
French  ports  in  order  to  transport  the  British  troops  into  Bel- 
gium, are  dated  from  1906.' 

"Let  us  put  the  case  simply  and  fairly.  These  'secret  papers' 
have  been  widely  advertised  as  affording  evidence  of  a  long 
concluded  plot  and  purpose  on  the  part  of  France  or  England, 
or  both  together,  to  violate  Belgium's  neutrality  in  order  to 
reach  and  attack  Germany,  Belgium  being  a  party  to  the  plot. 
This  has  frequently  been  alleged  by  Germany's  spokesmen  in 
justification  of  Germany's  actual  violation  of  Belgium's  neutral 
territory  in  order  to  reach  the  French  frontier  and  attack 
France. 

"There  was  absolutely  nothing  in  Dr.  Dernburg's  remarks 
introducing  the  'secret  documents  to  give  any  idea  of  their 
significance  different  from  that  just  stated.  He  said: 

"The  Imperial  Chancellor  has  declared  that  there  was  irre- 
futable proof  that  if  Germany  did  not  march  through  Belgium 
her  enemies  would.  This  proof,  as  now  "being  produced,  is  of 
the  strongest  character. 

"Yet  the  'secret'  memorandum  of  1906,  as  The  Sun  has 
pointed  out,  conclusively  shows,  in  one  sentence  to  which 
Dr.  Dernburg  failed  to  refer  in  any  intelligible  manner,  that 
the  purpose  of  the  military  understanding  between  Belgium  and 
England  was  not  to  walk  over  Belgium's  neutrality  for  the 
purpose  of  attacking  Germany,  but  to  help  defend  Belgium's 
neutrality  and  prevent  Germany  from  walking  over  it  in  order 
to  attack  France.  The  sentence  in  question  is  this: 

"The  entry  of  the  English  in  Belgium  would  only  take  place 
after  the  violation  of  our  neutrality  ~by  Germany. 

"This  seems  to  settle  the  question  of  the  intention  of  Eng- 
land's conversations  with  Belgium  both  in  1906  and  in  1912. 
There  is  absolutely  nothing  in  the  second  'secret'  document, 
presumably  of  1912,  indicating  any  purpose  to  attack  Germany 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  267 

through  Belgium  except  in  case  of  a  prior  invasion  of  Belgium 
by  Germany. 

"Unfortunately  Dr.  Dernburg  failed  to  point  out  this  most 
important  passage  of  any  of  the  documents.  He  left  it  for 
The  Sun  to  remedy  his  oversight.  The  estimable  controversialist 
now  says: 

"  'I  did  not  at  all  overlook  that  sentence  in  the  1906  document 
that  English  troops  were  only  to  be  landed  in  case  of  a  Ger- 
man attack.  I  mention  it  when  I  refer  to  the  fact  that  in  1906 
it  had  only  been  a  concerted  action.' 

"We  cannot  do  less,  in  the  spirit  of  fairness,  than  to  repro- 
duce the  paragraph  in  which  Dr.  Dernburg  says  he  'mentions' 
that  which  we  have  accused  him  of  overlooking.  Here  it  is. 
The  ingenious  reader  may  occupy  himself  in  hunting  for  the 
'mention' : 

"  'The  position  of  England  was  therefore  that  while  in  1906 
they  had  already  concerted  plans  for  a  joint  action,  in  1912 
England  intended  action  in  any  case,  should  a  European  con- 
flagration break  out.' 

"We  find  nothing  more  definite  than  this  in  the  way  of  men- 
tion of  the  central  fact.  To  add  to  our  bewilderment  over  the 
workings  of  a  mind  in  many  respects  both  candid  and  acute 
Dr.  Dernburg  now  adds  this  to  his  specifications  of  provocative 
behavior  on  the  part  of  'criminal'  Belgium: 

"  'A  breach  of  neutrality  in  the  case  of  Belgium  is  shown  by 
the  repeated  use  of  the  term  "allies"  or  "allied  forces,"  meaning 
Belgium,  France  and  England.' 

"Hypothetically  allies,  hypothetically  allied  forces,  in  case 
of  military  co-operation  to  resist  a  German  invasion.  Does  Dr. 
Dernburg  really  expect  the  American  people  to  believe  that  he 
believes  that  the  use  of  the  words  in  this  sense  constituted  a 
'breach  of  neutrality'  on  Belgium's  part,  an  offence  against 
Germany  justifying  the  punishment  which  Germany  has — not 
hypothetically,  but  in  awful  reality — visited  upon  that  unhappy 
nation?" 

Another  influential  paper    (134)   wrote,   after  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  documents  in  question : 

"  'We  now  let  these  Belgian  documents  speak  for  themselves* 


268  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

is  the  concluding  sentence  of  Dr.  Dernburg's  plea  in  justification 
of  Germany's  violation  of  her  treaty  obligations.  And  they 
do  speak  for  themselves;  but  they  do  not  speak  for  Dr.  Dern- 
burg.  That  gentleman,  in  the  course  of  his  1,500  words,  more 
or  less,  of  introduction,  has  not  a  word  to  spare  for  the  simple 
fact  that  the  military  arrangements  discussed  between  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  British  army  and  a  representative  of  the  Bel- 
gian army  related  solely  to  what  would  be  done  'in  case  Bel- 
gium should  be  attacked.'  Special  pleading,  on  the  part  of  the 
official  advocates  of  any  belligerent,  is  to  be  expected ;  but  there 
are  limits  beyond  which  special  pleading  becomes  an  insult  to 
intelligence.  Those  limits  are  passed  when  the  consideration  of 
measures  to  be  taken  by  one  country  in  case  a  treaty  is  violated 
by  another  is  deliberately  declared  to  be  proof  that  the  first 
country  herself  was  determined  to  commit  the  violation.  And 
on  no  better  basis  than  this  does  Dr.  Dernburg  rest  the  defence 
of  Germany's  crime  against  Belgium." 

Again,  Dr.  Dernburg  tries  to  exculpate  himself  by  an- 
other letter,  saying:  "You  find  fault  because  you  think  I 
suppressed  the  sentence  that  English  intervention  was  only 
to  take  place  in  case  of  a  German  breach  of  neutrality. 
This  phrase  is  only  in  the  1906  document,  and  I  said  so." 

The  reply  was  as  follows:  (135) 

"Dr.  Dernburg,  it  is  true,  printed  the  document  correctly, 
but  did  not  himself  'say'  anything  about  the  critical  sentence. 
He  must  be  aware  that,  whatever  the  true  interpretation  of  the 
conversation  of  Colonel  Bridges  in  1912,  it  was  not  binding  on 
his  Government.  What  the  understanding  of  that  Government 
was  is  made  perfectly  clear  by  the  explicit  statement  of  Sir 
Edward  Grey  in  1913.  We  print  it  here  in  full: 

(Copy  of  a  dispatch  from  Sir  E.  Grey  to  H.  M.  Minister  at 
Brussels.) 

"Foreign  Office,  April  7,   1913. 

"'Sir:  In  speaking  to  the  Belgian  Minister  to-day  I  said, 
speaking  unofficially,  that  it  had  been  brought  to  my  knowledge 
that  there  was  apprehension  in  Belgium  lest  we  should  be  the 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  269 

first  to  violate  Belgian  neutrality.  I  did  not  think  that  this 
apprehension  could  have  come  from  a  British  source.  The  Bel- 
gian Minister  informed  me  that  there  had  been  talk  in  a  British 
source,  which  he  could  not  name,  of  the  landing  of  troops  in 
Belgium  by  Great  Britain  in  order  to  anticipate  a  possible  dis- 
patch of  German  troops  through  Belgium  to  France.  I  said 
that  I  was  sure  that  this  Government  would  not  be  the  first 
to  violate  the  neutrality  of  Belgium,  and  I  did  not  believe  that 
any  British  Government  would  be  the  first  to  do  so,  nor  would 
public  opinion  here  ever  approve  of  it.  What  we  had  to  con- 
sider— and  it  was  a  somewhat  embarrassing  question — was 
what  it  would  be  desirable  and  necessary  for  us,  as  one  of  the 
guarantors  of  Belgian  neutrality,  to  do  if  Belgian  neutrality 
was  violated  by  any  Power.  For  us  to  be  the  first  to  violate 
it  and  to  send  troops  into  Belgium  would  be  to  give  Germany, 
for  instance,  justification  for  sending  troops  into  Belgium  also. 
What  we  desired  in  the  case  of  Belgium,  as  in  that  of  other 
neutral  countries,  was  that  their  neutrality  should  be  respected, 
and  as  long  as  it  was  not  violated  by  any  other  Power  we 
should  certainly  not  send  troops  ourselves  into  their  territory. — 
I  am,  &c.,  'E.  GREY.' 

"It  is  certain  that  if  England  would  not  violate  Belgian 
neutrality  first,  she  would  not  do  it  at  all,  unless  Germany  set 
the  example.  Moreover,  we  would  remind  Dr.  Dernburg  that 
it  is  love's  labor  lost  to  argue  in  the  United  States  about  what 
Great  Britain  might  have  done,  so  long  as  we  know  what  Ger- 
many did  do.  Her  action  was  described  by  her  own  Chancellor 
as  a  violation  of  international  law,  and  a  breach  of  a  solemn 
treaty.  All  the  documents  that  may  be  dug  up  in  the  Belgian 
archives  cannot  rail  the  seal  off  that  bond. 

"In  his  next  study  of  'Belgian  documents'  we  hope  that  Dr. 
Dernburg  will  give  us  his  exegesis  of  two  that  stand  side  by 
side  in  the  Belgian  official  publication.  On  August  2  the  Bel- 
gian Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  asked  the  German  Minister 
in  Brussels  if  Belgium  could  still  rely  upon  the  former  German 
official  assurances  that  Belgian  territory  would  not  be  invaded. 
Herr  von  Below  said  that  'we  knew  his  personal  opinion  as  to 
the  feelings  of  security  which  we  had  the  right  to  entertain 
towards  our  eastern  neighbors.'  Yet  on  the  same  day  the  same 
German  Minister  presented  his  demand  that  German  troops  be 
permitted  to  pass  through  Belgium,  with  the  threat  that,  if 


270  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

permission  was  refused,  'Germany  will  be  compelled  to  consider 
Belgium  as  an  enemy'!" 

Before  leaving  this  phase  of  the  Belgian  question,  it  is 
well  to  note  the  admirable  illustration  it  affords  of  the  ca- 
pacity for  mutual  contradiction  and  self-contradiction  of 
the  German  apologists. 

At  the  end  of  an  editorial  satirically  entitled,  "News 
About  Belgium/'  a  daily  paper  (136)  remarked: 

"Upon  the  main  question  of  the  violation  of  Belgium,  a  cor- 
respondent offers  a  very  illuminating  summary  of  the  explana- 
tions and  justifications  offered.  With  his  help  we  classify  the 
pleas  as  follows: 

"The  Imperial  Chancellor — We  committed  a  wrong,  but  neces- 
sity knows  no  law. 

"Count  von  Bernstorff — French  aviators  had  flown  over  Bel- 
gium. 

"German  Professors — Another  crime  of  English  hypocrisy. 

"Professor  Burgess,  of  Columbia — Belgium  had  outgrown  the 
'baby  food'  of  neutrality  guarantees. 

"Judge  Grosscup — The  neutrality  treaty  was  not  binding  as 
a  contractual  obligation. 

"Professor  Sloane,  of  Princeton — There  never  was  a  treaty. 

"Doctor  Dernburg — Belgium  violated  her  own  neutrality. 

"Ex-Governor  Pennypacker — She  stood  in  the  middle  of  the 
street  (i.e.,  in  the  way  of  traffic). 

"Maximilian  Harden — Our  critics  can  all  go  to  h . 

"We  find  all  of  these  more  or  less  interesting,  but  we  are 
frank  to  say  that  the  last  seems  to  us  the  least  offensive  of 
the  lot." 

It  might  have  added:  Dernburg  (later),  Belgian  neu- 
trality expired  in  May,  1872. 

Henschel  (a  New  York  lawyer).  The  Treaty  (of  1839) 
had  "lost  moral  validity." 

There  will  doubtless  be  others  forthcoming.  But  it  is  all 
too  late.  The  world,  with  the  evidence  before  it,  has  de- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  271 

cided.  The  jury  of  civilization  has  brought  in  its  verdict. 
The  court  unfortunately  lacks,  for  the  moment,  the  phy- 
sical power  to  enforce  its  decree.  But  it  will  sanction  no 
appeal.  The  moral  stigma  will  remain  until  the  crime  has 
been  followed  by  full  expiation,  and,  if  such  expiation  is 
involuntary,  the  stain  will  be  indelible. 

But  once  more,  in  spite  of  unavoidable  repetition,  I  want 
to  make  clear  to  Americans  the  best  current  American  opin- 
ion upon  this  subject.  My  own  arguments  may  not  reach 
minds  which  would  be  open  to  another  line  of  thought  and 
expression.  I  may  emphasize  facts  that  to  certain  readers 
would  seem  unimportant  and  overlook  others  that  to  them 
would  be  conclusive.  For  that  reason  I  give  space  to  the 
editorial  expression  of  an  American  paper  (137),  which 
presents  the  entire  question  for  American  consideration. 
It  was  headed  "A  New  and  More  Wicked  Assault  on  Bel- 
gium/' 

"During  the  splendid  outpouring  of  Philadelphia's  generosity 
in  behalf  of  famine- stricken  Belgium  we  received  a  letter — 
anonymous,  of  course — bitterly  denouncing  this  newspaper's 
editorial  attitude  on  the  war.  Only  one  paragraph  was  worthy 
of  preservation,  because  it  struck  a  new  note.  Said  the  writer : 

"  'Why  print  all  that  slush  about  the  Belgians,  when  you 
know,  in  spite  of  English  lies,  that  they  got  what  they  deserved  ? 
If  they  are  hungry,  it  is  because  they  joined  with  Germany's 
enemies.  .  .  .  ' 

"At  the  time  we  regarded  this  singular  utterance  as  a  mere 
manifestation  of  rancor,  due,  in  part,  to  the  continued  ill  suc- 
cess of  the  German  armies.  But  we  have  learned  since  that 
it  was  a  symptom  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable  changes  of 
thought  that  have  taken  place  since  the  war  began. 

"Three  months  ago  the  German  attitude  toward  Belgium, 
despite  the  sanguinary  struggle,  was  marked  by  a  certain 
formal  chivalry.  It  was  'necessary/  according  to  the  military 
code,  to  use  the  most  ruthless  methods  of  warfare;  but  these 
measures  were  adopted,  it  was  said,  with  regret,  and  Belgium's 


272  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

heroic  stand  for  her  national  integrity,  while  a  costly  mistake, 
was  acknowledged  to  be  just.  The  fullest  possible  reparation 
was  publicly  pledged  by  the  imperial  chancellor. 

"When  it  became  clear,  however,  that  Belgian  resistance  had 
wrecked  the  plan  for  a  swift  conquest  of  France,  and  partic- 
ularly when  the  German  retreat  from  Paris  became  a  definite 
fact,  there  was  a  marked  change. 

"Belgium  was  denounced  as  an  unscrupulous  enemy,  a  nation 
unworthy  of  any  fate  but  to  be  subjugated  by  brute  force.  A 
deliberate  campaign  was  undertaken  not  only  to  discredit  her 
self-sacrificing  patriotism,  but  to  blacken  her  fame  in  the  eyes 
of  the  world. 

"The  German  government  has  supplied  the  keynote  for  this 
chorus  of  defamation  by  issuing  official  statements  charging 
that  the  Belgian  government  conspired  with  Great  Britain  to 
land  British  troops  in  Belgium  in  1906  and  with  France  to 
admit  her  forces  to  attack  Germany.  All  the  spokesmen  for 
'Kultur,'  from  Dr.  Bernhard  Dernburg  to  the  industrious 
writers  of  letters  to  the  newspapers,  ring  the  changes  upon  this 
theme  with  ever-increasing  virulence. 

"'Belgian  neutrality  was  a  myth,'  says  one.  'It  was  one 
sided,  a  threat  against  Germany,'  says  another.  'Belgium 
wanted  war;  she  was  a  secret  ally  of  England  and  France,' 
cries  a  third.  German  newspapers  jeeringly  ask  why  those 
two  countries  do  not  feed  the  victims  of  their  'perfidy.'  They 
denounce  Belgium  as  a  dishonorable  foe,  that  has  earned  the 
utmost  rigors  of  humiliating  conquest.  With  astounding  hardi- 
hood, the  representatives  of  imperialism  now  picture  prostrate 
Belgium  as  the  aggressor,  and  Germany  as  the  victim  of  cruel 
injury. 

"This  propaganda  is  so  widespread  and  so  determined  that 
there  is  no  doubt  of  its  official  inspiration.  With  character- 
istic efficiency,  the  German  government  and  people  have  set  out 
to  destroy  the  image  of  heroism  and  sacrifice  that  exists  in  the 
minds  of  men,  and  to  substitute  therefor  an  image  of  craft 
and  dishonor. 

"Germany  is  not  yet  through  with  crushed  and  bleeding  Bel- 
gium. The  flinging  of  bombs  on  sleeping  homes,  the  leveling 
of  cities,  the  exaction  of  vast  tribute,  the  infliction  of  alien 
military  rule,  the  driving  of  a  million  men  and  women  and 
children  into  exile,  the  seizure  of  all  food  supplies  from  a  deati- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  273 

tute  people — these  things  are  not  enough.  Belgium's  martyr- 
dom must  be  mocked;  she  must  be  covered  with  reproach;  she 
must  be  branded,  in  all  her  helplessness  and  despair,  as  a 
strumpet  among  the  nations. 

"In  the  face  of  this  campaign  of  calumny  it  becomes  necessary 
to  restate  the  facts.  Happily,  the  records  are  plain,  and  are  not 
to  be  obscured  or  distorted  by  all  the  sophistries  of  eloquent 
advocates.  With  as  little  editorial  comment  as  possible  we 
shall  set  down  once  more  the  record  which  in  its  main  points 
is  familiar  to  Americans. 

"During  the  Middle  Ages  and  until  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  Belgium  was  the  battlefield  of  all  the  contending 
nations  of  central  Europe,  and  a  dozen  times  the  country  was 
divided,  reunited  and  passed  from  one  alien  rule  to  another. 
It  was  held  at  various  times  by  Burgundy,  by  Austria,  by 
Spain,  by  Austria  again,  and  by  France.  After  the  fall  of 
Napoleon  it  was  incorporated  with  Holland. 

"The  union  was  intensely  unpopular,  and  in  1830  the  Belgians 
won  their  independence  by  revolution.  Thereupon  'perpetual 
neutrality'  was  imposed  upon  Belgium,  not  only  by  her  own 
desire,  but  by  formal  treaty  of  Great  Britain,  France,  Austria, 
Prussia  and  Russia.  On  June  26,  1831,  these  Powers  signed  a 
treaty  providing: 

"  'Belgium  shall  form  a  perpetually  neutral  State.  The  five 
Powers  guarantee  her  that  perpetual  neutrality,  as  well  as  the 
integrity  and  inviolability  of  her  territory. 

"  'By  just  reciprocity  Belgium  shall  be  held  to  observe  this 
same  neutrality  toward  all  the  other  States,  and  to  make  no 
attack  on  their  tranquility,  whilst  always  preserving  the  right 
to  defend  herself  against  any  foreign  aggression.' 

"The  guarantee  of  neutrality  was  distinct  and  unequivocal, 
as  was  the  obligation  of  Belgium  to  observe  the  condition.  But 
eight  years  later  the  solemn  pact  was  renewed.  Holland  then 
for  the  first  time  recognized  Belgium's  independence,  and  a  new 
treaty  between  the  two  countries  was  signed  on  January  23, 
1839,  providing: 

"  'Belgium  shall  form  an  independent  and  perpetually  neutral 
State.  She  is  obligated  to  preserve  this  neutrality  against  all 
the  other  States.' 

"Here  was  stated  in  still  clearer  terms  the  duty  of  Belgium 

18 


274:  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

not  only  to  observe  neutrality,  but  to  'preserve'  it — to  defend  it. 
And  once  more  the  treaty  was  placed  under  the  solemn,  formal 
guarantee  of  Britain,  France,  Austria,  Prussia  and  Russia. 

"Belgian  neutrality,  in  the  joint  keeping  of  herself  and  of 
the  great  Powers,  was  not  seriously  questioned  for  more  than 
thirty  years.  The  Franco-Prussian  war  of  1870  raised  the  first 
fears;  but  Great  Britain  procured  from  each  of  the  belligerents 
a  formal  engagement  not  to  trespass  upon  Belgian  territory. 
Moreover,  the  Belgian  minister  in  Berlin  obtained  this  positive 
assurance  from  Bismarck,  reaffirming  the  old  treaties : 

"  'BERLIN,  July  22,  1870. — In  confirmation  of  my  verbal 
assurances,  I  have  the  honor  to  give  in  writing  a  declaration 
which,  in  view  of  the  treaties  in  force,  is  quite  superfluous,  that 
the  Confederation  of  the  North  and  its  allies  will  respect  the 
neutrality  of  Belgium,  on  the  understanding,  of  course,  that  it 
is  respected  by  the  other  belligerents.' 

"Belgium  herself  was  so  scrupulously  careful  in  observing 
her  obligations  that  she  forbade  her  people  to  supply  arms  and 
ammunition  to  either  belligerent,  as  they  had  a  legal  right  to 
do;  and  she  further  refused  to  permit  France  even  to  send  her 
wounded  troops  homeward  across  Belgian  territory. 

"The  first  assault  upon  her  neutrality  was  made  by  Germany, 
one  of  the  signatories  to  the  treaties  of  1831  and  1839.  On 
August  2d  last,  without  the  slightest  warning,  she  delivered  to 
Belgium  an  ultimatum  demanding  passage  for  her  armies  across 
Belgium  in  order  to  attack  France. 

"This,  which  would  have  made  Belgium  an  ally  of  Germany 
against  France,  and  would  have  been  an  utter  betrayal  by  Bel- 
gium of  her  obligations  to  preserve  neutrality,  was  described 
by  Germany  as  'an  attitude  of  friendly  neutrality.'  The  alter- 
native she  offered  was  war,  followed  by  annexation. 

"Belgium's  reply,  destined  to  become  one  of  the  noted  docu- 
ments of  history,  refuted  the  invention  that  France  was  pre- 
paring to  invade  her  territory,  and  said: 

"  'Moreover,  if  the  country's  neutrality  should  be  violated  by 
France,  Belgium  would  fulfill  her  international  duties,  and  her 
army  would  oppose  a  most  vigorous  resistance  to  the  invader. 

"  'The  treaties  of  1839,  confirmed  by  the  treaties  of  1870,  per- 
petuate Belgium's  independence  and  neutrality  under  the  guar- 
antee of  the  Powers,  and  especially  under  the  guarantee  of  the 
government  of  his  majesty  the  king  of  Prussia  (the  Kaiser). 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  275 

"  'Belgium  has  always  faithfully  observed  her  international 
obligations;  she  has  fulfilled  her  duties  in  a  spirit  of  loyal  im- 
partiality; she  has  neglected  no  opportunity  to  maintain  her 
neutrality  and  to  cause  it  to  be  respected  by  others. 

"  'The  attack  upon  her  independence  with  which  Germany 
menaces  her  is  a  flagrant  violation  of  the  law  of  nations.  The 
Belgian  government,  by  accepting  the  propositions  mentioned, 
would  sacrifice  its  national  honor  and  betray  at  the  same  time 
its  duty  toward  Europe.  Conscious  of  the  r6le  which  Belgium 
has  played  for  more  than  eighty  years  in  the  civilized  world,  it 
refuses  to  believe  that  its  independence  can  be  preserved  only 
at  the  price  of  a  betrayal  of  its  neutrality.'  .  .  . 

"Those  who  are  now  defaming  Belgium  as  a  plotter  against 
Germany  make  two  allegations.  The  first  is  that  used  by  the 
chancellor — that  'France  was  ready  to  invade  Belgium.'  The 
utter  mendacity  of  this  plea  is  shown  by  wtwo  facts.  First, 
France  offered  five  army  corps  to  Belgium  to  defend  her  neu- 
trality, after  the  German  ultimatum  had  been  given,  but  Bel- 
gium answered: 

"  'We  are  sincerely  grateful  to  the  French  government  for 
offering  eventual  support.  In  the  actual  circumstances,  however, 
we  do  not  propose  to  appeal  to  the  guarantee  of  the  Powers.' 

"Second,  it  is  a  matter  of  record  that  France  was  so  little  pre- 
pared to  invade  Belgium  that  it  took  her  more  than  ten  days 
to  get  her  troops  into  the  country. 

"The  other  defense  offered  by  the  German  government  is  that 
in  1906  military  representatives  of  the  British  government  ten- 
tatively discussed  with  the  Belgian  authorities  arrangements 
for  landing  a  British  expedition  in  Belgium  in  case  her  neu- 
trality should  be  attacked. 

"If  such  action  was  taken,  of  course  it  reflects  credit  upon 
both  governments ;  for  it  shows  that  Britain  was  ready  to  make 
sacrifices  to  defend  the  neutrality  she  had  sworn  to  uphold, 
while  Germany  was  ready  to  repudiate  her  solemn  word  in  order 
to  violate  that  neutrality. 

"And  how  well  prepared  Germany  was  for  her  perfidious 
action  is  revealed  in  the  existence  of  elaborate  railway  lines 
traversing  the  sparsely  populated  territory  near  the  Belgian 
border,  with  immense  yards  at  the  very  frontier  designed  for 
the  handling  of  troop  trains  and  no  other  purpose  whatsoever. 


£76  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"The  invasion  of  Belgium  was  not  an  enterprise  suddenly 
forced  upon  Germany  by  any  menace  from  France  or  England. 
It  was  an  act  long  before  calculated  and  prepared  for  with 
deliberate  purpose  and  minute  efficiency. 

"In  the  face  of  this  record,  German  advocates  express  plain- 
tive surprise  that  throughout  the  world  there  is  much  hostility 
to  their  cause.  The  fact  is  that  when  the  imperial  troops 
crossed  the  Belgian  frontier  Germany  placed  herself  morally  in 
the  position  of  an  international  burglar — a  measure  which 
would  seem  to  require  an  extreme  skill  to  justify. 

"To  a  certain  extent,  the  desperate  nature  of  the  expedient 
was  mitigated  by  the  straightforward  expressions  of  regret  and 
pledges  of  reparation.  But  now  these  have  been  repudiated; 
and  Germany  is  engaged  in  an  organized  campaign  to  defame 
the  victim  she  wronged. 

"This  ia  an  ^offense  far  blacker  than  the  invasion.  Struck 
down  under  the  plea  of  'military  necessity/  Belgium  is  to  be 
robbed  even  of  her  good  name.  The  very  corpse  of  the  murdered 
nation  is  to  be  dishonored  and  mutilated." 

With  this  admirable  summary  the  case  of  Belgium 
may  be  dismissed,  except  for  one  eleventh-hour  addition. 
On  March  23,  1915,  appears  in  the  American  papers  the 
following  statement  from  King  Albert  of  Belgium,  made 
to  a  representative  of  the  "New  York  World" : 

"No  one  in  Belgium  ever  gave  the  name  of  Anglo-Bel- 
gian conventions  to  the  letter  of  General  Ducarme  to  the 
Minister  of  War  detailing  the  entirely  informal  conversa- 
tions with  the  British  military  attache,  but  I  was  so  de- 
sirous of  avoiding  even  the  semblance  of  anything  that 
might  be  construed  as  unneutral  that  I  liad  the  matters 
of  which  it  is  now  sought  to  make  so  much  communicated 
to  the  German  military  attache  in  Brussels.  "When  the 
Germans  went  through  our  archives  they  Tcnew  exactly 
what  they  would  find,  and  all  their  present  surprise  and 
indignation  are  assumed" 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

I  venture  to  say,  that  if  there  is  a  conflict  of  testimony 
as  to  this  matter,  America  will  accept  the  word  of  King 

Albert 

i 

It  has  been  obYions  in  this  country  that  the  utter  failure 
of  "Truth  About  Germany"  and  other  manifestos  issued 
by  "learned  men/'  and  by  German  university  professors, 
to  influence  American  opinion  has  been  regarded  with  irri- 
tated amazement  by  the  German  sympathizers. 

They  expected  an  American  public  to  receive  unques- 
tioningly  statements  handed  down  from  a  presumably  lofty 
intellectual  altitude.  They  disregarded  the  American  char- 
acteristic of  "wanting  to  know."  Even  the  discovery  that 
the  formal  appeals  were  based  on  sophisms,  half -truths  and 
actual  falsehoods  did  not  quite  satisfy  American  curiosity. 

There  still  remained  to  be  explained  the  circumstance 
that  men  who  should  be  the  reliable  guides  of  the  people, 
the  standard-bearers  of  civilization,  the  expounders  of  in- 
ternational morals,  could  descend  to  the  petty,  illogical, 
evasive  and  untruthful  endeavours  which  they  have  made, 
to  bolster  up  a  criminal  cause  and  support  a  national  ideal 
subversive  of  all  ethical  principles. 

The  explanations  have  been  many  in  number,  but  identi- 
cal in  content.  The  following  editorial  (138).  is  selected 
for  quotation  partly  by  reason  of  its  clearness  and  concise- 
ness, but  also  because  its  culminating  argument  is  taken 
from  the  writings  of  the  present  Professor  of  Philosophy 
at  the  University  of  Berlin. 

"An  explanation  of  the  extraordinary  zeal  with  which  numer- 
ous eminent  German  professors  have  attempted  to  justify  the 
course  of  their  government  in  the  great  Euiopean  war  is  to  be 
found  in  the  peculiar  relations  that  exist  between  the  university 
and  the  state  in  Germany — relations  which  are  radically  differ- 
ent from  those  that  prevail  in  the  United  States.  In  the 


278  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

eighteenth  century  German  universities  were  state  institutions, 
the  purpose  of  which  was  mainly,  if  not  solely,  the  training  of 
officials  for  public  service.  Gradually,  during  the  nineteenth 
century,  the  state  control  over  internal  affairs  in  the  universi- 
ties relaxed,  while  the  field  of  activity  and  the  intellectual 
scope  of  these  institutions  broadened.  The  general  govern- 
mental supervision,  however,  became  more  rather  than  less 
strict,  until  at  the  present  time  the  control  which  the  state 
exercises  over  the  universities  may  fairly  be  called  rigid.  Pro- 
fessors in  German  universities  are,  in  fact,  state  officials,  ap- 
pointed, paid,  and  subject  to  discipline  by  the  state.  The  fact 
that  their  salaries  are  supplemented  by  fees  from  those  who 
attend  certain  lectures  does  not  alter  this  well-recognized  re- 
lation. 

"In  the  Kingdom  of  Prussia  a  particularly  close  relationship 
between  the  government  and  the  universities  has  been  estab- 
lished and  firmly  maintained;  the  sovereign  himself  appoints 
the  full  professors,  the  Minister  of  Education  the  assistant  or, 
as  the  Germans  prefer  to  call  them,  the  extraordinary  pro- 
fessors. The  faculties  may  suggest  the  names  of  candidates,  but 
the  appointing  power  is  at  liberty  to  accept  or  reject  these  sug- 
gestions. Recent  efforts  to  establish  in  Hamburg  and  in  Frank- 
fort universities  that  should  be  free  from  the  control  of  the 
state  have  been  summarily  suppressed;  the  Prussian  Govern- 
ment has  no  intention  of  loosening  its  grip  upon  these  useful 
institutions. 

"It  follows  from  these  conditions  that  a  professor  in  a  Ger- 
man university,  being  virtually  a  state  official,  occupies  an 
enviable  position  of  high  dignity  and  of  exceptional  importance 
in  the  community.  If  the  town  in  which  the  university  is  situ- 
ated is  comparatively  small,  as  with  Gottingen,  Bonn,  Heidel- 
berg, or  Wurzburg,  the  position  of  a  professor  is  all  the  more 
exalted.  In  all  probability  nobody,  however  rich  he  may  be, 
can  outrank  him;  and  what  this  means  to  a  people  who  value 
rank  and  titles  as  do  the  Germans  need  not  be  dwelt  upon. 
University  professors  in  Germany,  in  truth,  form  one  of  the 
leading  classes  in  the  intellectual  aristocracy  of  the  empire. 
With  the  clergy,  the  judges,  and  other  civil  officials,  the  physi- 
cians and  technologists,  all,  or  practically  all,  university  bred, 
they  constitute  a  kind  of  official  nobility.  Only  one  thing — a 
commission  in  the  army  or  navy — can  relieve  a  man  from  the 


'A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  279 

necessity  of  having  an  academic  education  if  he  would  be  a 
member  of  this  high  order. 

"These  professors  wield  an  enormous  influence  in  shaping  the 
character  and  in  molding  the  opinions  of  the  German  people. 
By  what  subtle  but  effective  means  the  state  controls  and  regu- 
lates this  influence  whenever  the  occasion  seems  to  require  the 
exercise  of  such  control  was  set  forth  by  J.  H.  Morgan,  Pro- 
fessor of  International  Law  in  the  University  of  London,  in  a 
recent  issue  of  the  London  Times: 

"  'In  no  country  is  the  control  of  the  government  over  the 
universities  so  strong;  nowhere  is  it  so  vigilant  as  in  Germany. 
Political  favor  may  make  or  mar  an  academic  career;  the  com- 
plaisant professor  is  decorated,  the  contumacious  is  cashiered. 
German  academic  history  is  full  of  examples.  Treitschke,  Sybel, 
even  Mommsen,  all  felt  the  weight  of  royal  displeasure  at  one 
period  or  another.  The  present  Emperor  vetoed  the  award  of 
the  Verdun  prize  to  Sybel  because  in  his  history  of  Prussian 
policy  he  had  exalted  Bismarck  at  the  expense  of  the  Hohen- 
zollerns,  and  he  threatened  to  close  the  archives  to  Treitschke. 
Even  Mommsen  had  at  one  time  to  learn  the  steepness  of  alien 
stairs.  On  the  other  hand,  no  government  recognizes  so  readily 
the  value  of  a  professor  who  is  docile — he  is  of  more  value  than 
many  Pomeranian  grenadiers.  Bismarck  invited  Treitschke  to 
accompany  the  army  of  Sadowa  as  a  writer  of  military  bulle- 
tins, and  both  he  and  Sybel  were,  after  due  caution,  com- 
missioned to  write  those  apologetics  of  Prussian  policy  which 
are  classics  of  their  kind.5 

"If,  however,  this  evidence  is  in  a  measure  discredited  on 
account  of  its  source,  no  such  charge  of  prejudice  will  lie 
against  Dr.  Friedrich  Paulsen,  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  the 
University  of  Berlin.  In  his  book  on  'German  Universities/ 
in  which  the  large  freedom  of  learning  and  of  teaching  is  em- 
phasized, Professor  Paulsen  had  this  to  say  of  the  influences  to 
which  professors  in  German  universities  are  subjected:  'Origi- 
nally confined  to  political  and  military  circles,  the  decorations, 
titles,  and  patents  of  nobility  began  to  invade  the  academic 
world  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  have  multiplied  to  such 
an  alarming  extent  during  the  nineteenth  that  they  are  almost 
in  danger  of  losing  their  distinction.5  Professor  Paulsen  thinks 
that  there  would  have  been  no  loss  to  the  universities  if  these 
distinctions  had  been  restricted  to  their  original  sphere — the 


280  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

diplomatic,  political,  and  military  world.  The  real  object  for 
which  not  infrequently  they  are  bestowed  is  revealed  in  what 
he  says  later: 

"  'Or  is  it,  perhaps,  the  purpose  of  these  distinctions  to  en- 
courage professors  to  achieve  political  merit  also?  In  that  case 
the  question  would  arise  whether  such  a  thing  was  compatible 
with  their  real  vocation.  In  my  judgment  this  question  cannot 
be  answered  in  the  affirmative.  If  the  problem  is  to  acquire 
the  freest  and  most  impartial  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  to 
lead  others  in  the  same  direction,  then,  it  seems-  to  me,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  participation  in  politics  and  deferent  re- 
gard for  the  views  which  the  political  powers  happen  to  con- 
sider allowable  or  necessary  will  not  enhance  but  will  rather 
diminish  the  professor's  capacity  to  realize  this  end.  Even 
though  the  services  of  scholars  who  possess  the  public  esteem 
may  occasionally  be  desired  by  the  political  powers,  it  will  be 
better  for  the  academic  world  and  the  ideal  peculiar  to  it  if  they 
be  not  rendered.' 

"Professor  Paulsen  does  not  seem  to  have  much  faith  that 
the  practice  of  bestowing  these  distinctions  upon  university 
professors  will  be  stopped,  for  he  closes  the  discussion  of  the 
subject  with  the  somewhat  cynical  observation:  'Governments 
will  not  be  wanting  in  future  which  are  ready  to  offer  such  re- 
wards for  services  performed,  nor  will  there  be  a  dearth  of 
hands  stretched  out  to  receive  them.' 

"In  the  light  of  the  foregoing  is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  the 
professors  in  German  universities  are  firm  in  the  conviction  that 
right  as  well  as  might  is  on  the  side  of  the  Kaiser." 

If  we  go  back  a  step  farther  in  the  analysis  of  motives 
for  the  extraordinary  and  surprising  alignment  of  the 
German  "Intellectuals"  on  the  side  of  wrong,  we  would 
find,  I  think,  that  one  idea  is  common  to  them,  to  the 
Prussian  autocrats  and  bureaucrats  who  control  them,  and 
to  the  German-American  propagandists  who  more  or  less 
blindly  follow  them.  It  is  the  idea  which,  based  on  the 
theory  that  war  is  a  "biological  necessity,"  leads  logically 
to  the  conclusion  reached  by  Major-General  von  Disfurth 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  281 

(p.  42)  that  any  act  committed  in  the  carrying  on  of  war 
is  "a  brave  act  and  fully  justified."  This  dictum  would 
obviously  include  any  means  adopted  either  to  win  sym- 
pathy that  would  be  useful  to  Germany,  or  to  make  trouble 
for  unsympathetic  "neutrals,"  and  thus  lessen  the  chances 
of  their  harming  Germany.  Having  reached  this  point 
even  a  "learned  man"  might  not  find  it  difficult  to  regard 
sophisms,  half-truths,  or  absolute  falsehoods  as  "patriotic" 
expedients,  analogous  to  the  deceptions  practiced  by  a 
military  spy  in  the  service  of  his  country. 

Dr.  Prince,  in  the  paper  already  quoted  from  (p.  108), 
says  forcibly  as  to  this  aspect  of  the  matter: 

"One  word  regarding  the  so-called  'Intellectuals':  Are  we 
not  compelled  to  believe  it  is  owing  to  the  unconscious  influence 
of  the  German  viewpoint  that  a  large  number  of  German  uni- 
versity professors  and  others  distinguished  in  literature,  science 
and  learning,  men  of  great  personal  probity  and  culture  and 
hitherto  commanding  the  respect  of  the  intellectual  world,  have, 
in  their  aim  to  tell  us  'The  Truth  about  Germany'  in  that  and 
other  publications,  sacrificed  their  intellectual  honesty  to  the 
cause  of  the  fatherland? 

"Are  we  not  compelled  to  believe  that  it  is  from  the  German 
viewpoint  that  these  intellectuals  and,  still  more  flagrantly,  the 
organized  political  propagandists  in  this  country,  represented 
in  the  press  by  Dr.  Dernburg,  Dr.  von  Mach,  Dr.  Albert,  Dr. 
Miinsterburg  and  Mr.  Bidder,  all  of  whom  we  are  glad  to  respect 
for  their  culture  in  other  fields,  have  misrepresented  facts  of 
common  knowledge  relating  to  the  causes  of  and  responsibility 
for  this  war — have  perverted  the  meaning  of  official  dispatches 
and  actions  and  motives  of  the  governments  of  England  and 
France  and  Belgium  and  Italy  and  Russia,  and  have  sought, 
by  the  shallowest  sophistries,  to  throw  dust  in  the  eyes  of  the 
public  and  gain  the  sympathy  of  the  American  people? 

"If  one  wishes  to  recall  to  mind  examples,  one  need  only 
think  of  the  audacious  assertion  of  the  propagandists  that  Ger- 
many offered  to  make  a  new  treaty  with  England  to  guarantee 
the  neutrality  of  Belgium  and  that  England  refused — a  reckless 


282  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

assertion  without  a  single  scrap  of  authoritative  evidence;  the 
sophistical  assertion  that  England  and  France  had  already 
violated  the  neutrality  oi  Belgium  before  Germany  did;  that 
England  and  France  intended  to  invade  Belgium,  thus  forcing 
Germany  to  do  so;  the  disingenuous  argument  and  misrepresen- 
tation that  Belgium  had  forfeited  its  own  neutrality  before  the 
war;  that  England  claimed  to  declare  war  solely  because  of  her 
treaty  with  Belgium  without  regard  to  her  obligations  to 
France ;  that  England  wished  for  war  and  did  not  try  to  prevent 
it;  the  disingenuous  claim  that  Germany  strove  to  hold  back 
Austria  and  maintain  peace,  and  many  other  statements  sim- 
ilar in  kind. 

"By  their  publications  the  propagandists  have  been  successful 
to  a  certain  psychological  and  political  extent;  to  a  psycholog- 
ical extent  in  that  they  have  undoubtedly  presented  to  those 
who  were  already  national  sympathizers  with  the  fatherland, 
to  those  who  have  the  will  to  believe,  a  point  of  view  by  which 
they  can  justify  to  themselves,  in  spite  of  the  facts,  their  belief 
in  the  justice  of  Germany's  cause;  to  a  political  extent  in  that 
they  have  produced  a  solidarity  among  those  who  have  the 
will  to  believe. 

"But  to  neutral  Americans,  the  publicists,  the  diplomats,  the 
historians,  the  jurists,  the  men  of  American  universities,  and 
the  "man-in-the-street,"  who  without  previous  affiliations  and 
without  previous  national  prejudices  have  studied  for  them- 
selves the  facts  as  revealed  in  the  official  publications  of  the 
belligerent  nations,  all  this  prostitution  of  intellectual  honesty 
must  be  destined  to  be  useless." 

A  minor  and  amusing  instance  of  the  lack  of  harmony 
among  German  apologists,  who  strive  to  pay  attention  even 
to  trifles — if  the  trifles  are  supposed  to  influence  American 
opinion — occurs  in  relation  to  the  now  famous  German 
song,  "Deutschland  tiber  Alles."  Dr.  Dernburg  translates 
the  first  line  correctly,  we  believe — as  "Germany  above 
Everything."  Doctor  Jastrow  (139)  translates  it  "Above 
Everything  else,  Germany,"  which,  except  for  the  pleon- 
astic "else,"  coincides  with  Dernberg's  version.  But  Pro- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  283 

fessor  Schuetze,  of  Chicago  (140),  bitterly  berates  Mr. 
Galsworthy,  a  distinguished  Englishman,  for  translating 
the  same  line,  "Germany  Above  Everything."  Professor 
Schuetze  says  that  this  transforms  it  into  a  "jingo 
slogan/'  and  that  the  real  meaning  is:  "Germany,  Ger- 
many, dear  to  me  above  all  things."  That  may  be  Pro- 
fessor Schuetze's  meaning  when  he  sings  "Deutschland 
fiber  Alles,"  but  that  it  is  implicit  in  the  line  itself  can 
scarcely  be  maintained.  Moreover,  when  Doctor  Dern- 
burg  and  Doctor  Jastrow  sing  it,  they  are  obviously  taking 
the  "jingo  slogan"  view  of  its  significance, — and  then  the 
Dernburg,  Jastrow  and  Galsworthy  translations  are  identi- 
cal !  Is  it  possible  that,  to  the  German  mind,  Dernburg  and 
Jastrow  are  right,  and  Galsworthy  wrong?  It  may  be  so. 
For  eight  long  months  the  mental  processes  not  only  of  the 
warriors,  heroes,  and  War  Lords  of  Germany,  but  also  those 
of  her  statesmen,  philosophers  and  theologians,  have  been 
the  subject  of  unadmiring  astonishment  to  the  rest  of  the 
civilized  world.  But  it  should  be  noted,  before  dismissing 
the  subject,  that  George  Haven  Putnam  says  (141)  that, 
while  in  the  past  "Deutschland  liber  Alles"  has  been  sim- 
ply an  expression  of  patriotic  devotion;  "under  the  war 
spirit,  which  has  developed  steadily  since  1871  up  to  the 
outbreak  in  August,  1914,  the  term,  "Deutschland  liber 
Alles"  has  (and  very  naturally)  come  to  express  the  pres- 
ent war  spirit  of  the  Fatherland,  a  war  spirit  which,  as 
openly  avowed,  is  connected  with  the  necessity  of  break- 
ing up  the  British  Empire. 

Professor  Schuetze  should  turn  his  attention,  while  he  is 
on  the  subject  of  mistranslations,  to  Doctor  Dernburg^s 
rendering  into  English — again  for  the  benefit  of  Americans 
— of  the  succeeding  line  of  the  same  stanza.  The  "Schutz 
und  Trutze,"  for  which  "her  sons  ever  stand  united,"  Doc- 
tor Dernburg  translates:  "Defense  and  Protection."  Is 


284  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

there  the  slightest  authority  for  softening  "Trutze"  into 
"protection"  ?  Would  not  "Defense  and  Defiance"  be  more 
in  accord  with  both  the  root  significance  and  the  actual 
everyday  meaning  of  "Trutze"  ?  Is  not,  for  example,  a 
"Trutz-und  Schutz-Biindniss"  an  "offensive  and  defensive 
alliance"  ?  There  could  be  no  valid  objection  to  Germany's 
singing  about  this,  but  why  try  to  deceive  us  as  to  the  mean- 
ing of  her  song  ? 

Is  it  possible  that  the  more  accurate  translation  did  not 
sufficiently  harmonize  with  Dr.  Dernburg's  description  of 
"Deutschland  iiber  Alles"  as  a  "song  of  modesty"  ? 

One  may  indeed  be  defiant  when  on  the  defensive,  and 
even  Modesty,  when  outraged,  may  not  only  "blush  like 
scarlet"  but  also  have  " defiance  in  her  eye."  But  the  pic- 
ture of  a  shy,  shrinking,  blushing  Germany  singing 
"Deutschland  iiber  Alles"  as,  armed  to  the  teeth,  she  deso- 
lates Belgium;  or  even  as,  more  peaceably,  she  practices  the 
goose-step  in  the  presence  of  her  generals  and  field-mar- 
shals, seems  to  have  elements  of  psychological  confusion. 
Possibly  Professor  Miinsterberg  will  help  us. 

The  fact  is  that  a  convention  of  the  German  and  Ger- 
man-American apologists  for  the  purpose  of  deciding  upon 
authorized  versions  of  German  songs  and  speeches,  should 
be  held  at  once.  After  that,  perhaps,  we  would  not  find 
that  the  Imperial  Chancellor's  speech  to  the  Reichstag  had 
been  "mistranslated,"  or  that  the  Chancellor  had  been 
"misrepresented,"  although,  by  his  silence  under  world- 
wide criticism,  he  would  seem  to  have  thought  himself  cor- 
rectly reported.  NOT  would  we  have  our  Department  of 
State  officially  announcing  that  Germany  had,  in  a  com- 
munication, denied  the  "intention"  to  "seek  expansion  in 
South  America,"  while  Doctor  Dernburg  transforms  the 
same  document  into  a  "solemn  declaration  .  .  .  fully 
to  respect  the  Monroe  doctrine." 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


285 


There  are  at  hand  many  more  examples  of  the  contra- 
dictory and  clumsy  attempts  of  the  German  protagonists 
to  prepare  their  output  for  a  supposed  American  market. 
On  their  wares,  the  customary  label,  "Made  in  Germany/' 
might  now  well  be  replaced  by  one  reading:  "Made  for 
America/' 

In  following  this  subject  of  German  inconsistencies  and 
German  falsehoods  further,  it  seems  impossible  to  ignore 
Dr.  Dernburg.  Whenever  I  think  I  have  finished  with 
him  I  find  something  new.  He  is  entitled  to  head  the  fol- 
lowing summary,  even  at  the  risk  of  repetition.  It  does  not 
eeem  right  not  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  during  his 
meteoric  career  in  this  country  he  has  made  the  following 
statements,  which  may  perhaps  be  most  easily  contrasted 
with  the  facts  by  means  of  parallel  columns : 


THE  GERMAN  APOLOGISTS. 
DEBNBUEG  : 

The  Treaty  of  Neutrality  ex- 
pired May,  1872. 

"Belgium  violated  her  own 
neutrality"  [in  spite  of  its  hav- 
ing already  expired]. 


THE  TRUTH. 

The  treaty  has  been  continu- 
ously in  force  since  1839.  Bel- 
gium obeyed  both  the  letter  and 
the  spirit  of  the  treaty  in  re- 
sisting the  German  invasion. 


"The  German  Government 
gent  ...  a  solemn  declara- 
tion to  the  Department  of  State 
that,  whatever  happened,  she 
would  fully  respect  the  Monroe 
Doctrine." 


"The  instructions  of  Germany 
to  von  Bernstorff  were  to  deny 
that  Germany  intends  to  seek 
expansion  in  South  America" 
(V.  &  Department  of  State). 


The  "secret  documents"  dis- 
covered at  Brussels  establish 
the  "guilt"  of  Belgium  and  her 
"criminal"  intent  to  break  the 
treaty  of  neutrality  [non-exist- 
ent according  to  Dr,  Dernburg, 


"Instead  of  plotting  for  con- 
certed action  with  England  and 
France  to  procure  the  violation 
of  her  own  neutrality  in  antici- 
pation of  Germany's  movements, 
Belgium  appears  as  providing 


286 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


it  must  be  remembered],  as 
shown  by  "alliances"  or  by 
"concerted  plans  with  the  Eng- 
lish and  French  Governments." 


for  support  in  case  of  invasion 
by  Germany;  a  purpose  on  the 
part  of  her  powerful  neighbor 
even  then  (1906),  as  it  seems, 
expected  or  suspected  at  Brus- 
sels. And  that  is  precisely  what 
did  happen  in  and  to  Belgium." 
(142) 


"Only  the  prompt  action  at 
Liege  that  put  this  important 
railway  center,  commanding  the 
railway  connection  to  France 
and  Germany  into  German 
hands,  prevented  the  English 
landing  and  invading  Belgium." 


"We,"  i*  e.,  the  German  Gov- 
ernment, "have  been  able  to 
spend  as  much  as  $250,000,000 
a  year  to  take  care  of  our  work- 
men, giving  them  a  compulsory 
insurance  against  old  age,  pen- 
sioning widows,  and  providing 
for  orphans."  (143) 


"It  is  impossible  to  conceive 
how  the  taking  of  Liege  'pre- 
vented the  English  from  landing 
and  invading  Belgium.'  .  .  . 
The  fact  is  that  Liege  was  taken 
a  long  time  before  the  British 
troops  arrived  at  Calais,  and  it 
is  still  to-day  in  the  hands  of 
the  Germans,  without  in  the 
least  interfering  with  the  ar- 
rival of  British  reinforcements 
in  France."  (The  Belgian 
Minister  to  the  United  States.) 


The  employers,  not  the  Gov- 
ernment, pay  $14,000,000,  the 
workmen  $125,000,000,  and  the 
Government  about  $20,000,000, 
including  the  expense  of  the 
Imperial  Insurance  office.  (144) 


"She,"  Germany,  "has  waged 
no  war  of  any  kind,  has  never 
acquired  a  territory  in  all  her 
existence  except  by  treaty  and 
with  the  consent  of  the  rest  of 
the  world.  .  .  .  She  never 


History  records  the  annexa- 
tion of  Hanover,  the  appropria- 
tion of  Schleswig-Holstein,  the 
German  participation  in  the 
partition  of  Poland,  the  theft  of 
Silesia,  the  forcible  seizure  of 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


387 


was     aggressive 
body."     (145) 


toward     any- 


Alsace  and  Lorraine,  and,  re- 
cently, the  transformation  of 
Belgium  into  a  "glorious  Ger- 
man province." 


"I  dare  say  there  were  not 
twenty  of  the  works  of  any  one 
of  these  in  the  hands  of  Amer- 
icans outside  of  clubs  and  pub- 
lic libraries"  before  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war  (attempting  to 
belittle  the  influence  of  Bern- 
hardi,  Treitschke  and  Nietz- 
sche). (146) 


Two  booksellers  in  Philadel- 
phia had  sold  before  the  war  be- 
gan nearly  five  hundred  copies 
of  the  books  of  these  writers, 
i.  e.,  about  100  per  cent,  more 
than  Dernburg  asserted  to  be 
owned  by  private  individuals  in 
the  whole  United  States. 


General  Bernhardi  "was  re- 
tired from  the  service  just  be- 
cause his  writings  and  sayings 
did  not  meet  with  the  approval 
of  his  superiors."  Nov.  21,  1914. 
(147) 


Treitschke's  "conferences  were 
mainly  attended  on  account  of 
his  refined  rhetoric."  (148) 

[In  this  effort  to  belittle 
Treitschke  at  this  juncture 
"Dernburg  is  joined  by  Miinster- 
berg,  Hilprecht,  and  other  Ger- 
man-American apologists.  Bid- 
der says  he  is  "regarded  by 
Germans  as  a  man.  .  .  .  who 


This  statement  rests,  so  far 
as  I  know,  on  Dr.  Dernburg's 
unsupported  assertion.  He  has 
been  publicly  asked  to  prove  it. 
He  has  not  done  so.  But  on 
March  14th  there  appears  in 
American  papers  an  article 
"written  by  the  express  permis- 
sion of  the  Kaiser,"  and  signed : 
"Friedrich  von  Bernhardi,  Gen- 
eral of  Cavalry  up  to  Dec.  31, 
1914." 


"Treitschke's  r6le  in  all  this 
education  for  war  of  the  Ger- 
man peoples  has  been  that  of 
the  man  who  has  prostituted 
history  in  the  interests  of  arma- 
ment firms.  ...  It  was 
Treitschke  who  really  began, 
even  before  1870,  the  educa- 
tional campaign  of  the  intellec- 
tual class.,  and  he  has  been  its 


2SS 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


was  incapable  of  true  sympathy 
with  their  racial  aspirations." 
(149)  Jastrow  speaks  of  him 
as  "a  man  named  Treitschke." 
(150) 


most  fanatic,  as  well  as  its  most 
popular,  exponent."      (151) 


Namur  is  on  the  German 
frontier;  Antwerp  is  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Rhine;  Lifcge  con- 


Namur  is  many  miles  from 
the  German  frontier;  Antwerp 
is  many  miles  from  the  mouth 


trols  the  landing  and  entry  of      of  the  Rhine;  Liege  has  as  much 


the  English. 


to  do  with  the  control  of  the 
French  and  Belgian  Coast  as 
has  Camden,  New  Jersey. 


"Deutschland  fiber  Alles  is  a         "Schutz    und    Trutz"    means 
song  of  modesty,"  and  "Schutz      "Defense  and  Offen&e." 
und  Trutz"  means  "Defense  and 
Protection.99 


"We  do  not  believe  in  incor- 
porating in  our  Empire  any 
parts  of  nations  that  are  not  of 
our  own  language  and  race." 
(152) 


"Germany  is  a  'democracy,' 
directed  by  the  most  liberal  bal- 
lot law  that  exists,  even  more 
liberal  than  the  one  in  use  in 
the  United  States."  (153) 


What  of  the  Poles,  the  Sile- 
sians,  the  Danes  (of  Schleswig- 
Holstein),  the  French  of  Alsace- 
Lorraine,  the  Belgians? 

But  perhaps  he  meant  to 
speak  only  for  the  future, 
only  "When  Germany  Wins." 
(p.  23) 


"The  Prussian  system  makes 
universal  suffrage  a  farce."  (Dr. 
Oberholtzer.)  (See  pp.  148-54) 


Just  as  we  have  found  no  misstatement  too  large  or  too 
grave  to  be  employed  in  the  task  of  deceiving  the  American 
people,  from  the  misquotation  of  a  treaty  to  the  re-writing 
of  an  Imperial  Chancellor's  speech,  so  we  further  find  that 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  289 

no  deception  is  too  petty  or  too  trivial — whether  it  is  a  mis- 
location  of  a  city,  or  a  mistranslation  of  a  song — to  be 
attempted  if,  thereby,  a  single  pro-German  argument  can 
be  strengthened,  or  an  anti-German  sentiment  combated. 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  confine  oneself  to  Dernburg. 
He  must  still  figure  in  any  investigation  into  the  credibility 
of  the  German  apologists,  as,  since  his  arrival  in  America — 
perhaps,  as  a  detail  worked  out  through  his  country's  won- 
derful "efficiency" — there  has  been  almost  complete  silence 
on  the  part  of  many  who  were  previously  heard  from  on 
every  street  corner.  It  would  almost  seem  as  if  he  brought 
with  him  commands  which  have  been  meekly  obeyed,  even 
by  the  formerly  vociferous  German- American  editors  and 
speech-makers,  exchange  professors,  psychologists  and 
archaeologists.  To  be  sure  the  example  set  them  at  about 
the  same  time  by  the  "learned  men"  of  Germany,  in  their 
manifesto  to  this  country  (p.  253)  must  have  been  strongly 
deterrent.  Their  subsequent  silence  may,  therefore,  have 
been  merely  coincidental  with  the  Dernburg  irruption.  But 
I  ha'e  ma  doots !  At  any  rate,  I  am  truly  sorry  that  they 
stopped.  They  would  have  saved  some  of  us — who  are  in- 
clined to  be  controversial — much  trouble  if  they  had  con- 
tinued, as  they  were  rapidly  transforming  the  original  sen- 
timent of  the  country,  which  might  be  described  as  sym- 
pathy for  the  Allies,  with  dislike  for  German  aims  and 
methods,  into  contempt  and  overpowering  repugnance  for 
German  aims  and  methods,  with  constantly  increasing  sym- 
pathy for  the  Allies. 

Early  in  the  war,  i.  e.,  last  August  and  September,  most 
of  my  friends  who  thought  as  I  did,  described  themselves 
as  "pro- Allies."  To-day,  they  are  more  apt  to  say  they  are 
"anti-German."  For  this,  thanks  are  largely  due  to  the 
German  and  German-American  apologists. 

19 


290 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


The  German  Ambassador  to 
the  United  States,  Count  von 
Bernstorff,  deserves  particular, 
if  brief,  mention,  by  reason  of 
his  official  position. 

Bernstorff,  in  a  communica- 
tion to  the  State  Department, 
on  December  8,  1914,  said: 

"The  Union  Metallic  Car- 
tridge Company,  Bridgeport, 
Conn.,  has,  on  Oct.  20th,  secured 
through  Mr.  Frank  O.  Hoag- 
land  a  patent  for  a  'mushroom 
bullet/  It  has  been  ascertained 
from  a  reliable  source  that  since 
October  8,000,000  cartridges, 
made  according  to  this  patent, 
were  sent  by  the  above-men- 
tioned firm  to  Canada  for  use  in 
the  British  Army.  No  outside 
sign  distinguishes  these  bullets 
from  ordinary  ammunition,  so 
that  the  soldier  who  uses  them 
does  not  know  that  he  is  using 
dumdum  bullets." 


In  reply,  the  Remington 
Arms  Union  Metallic  Cartridge 
Company  wrote  him  under  date 
of  December  10th: 

"From  the  date  of  the  origi- 
nal application  for  the  patent 
up  to  the  date  of  the  second  ap- 
plication only  117,470  of  these 
cartridges  were  manufactured ; 
8,000  of  these  are  still  in  stock, 
and  not  one  has  been  manufac- 
tured since  the  date  the  second 
application  was  filed;  so  it  ia 
hardly  necessary  for  me  to  point 
out  how  absurd  is  the  statement 
that  we  have  sold  8,000,000  of 
them.  The  cartridge,  as  above 
mentioned,  is  purely  a  sporting 
one,  used  in  hunting  big  game 
only,  and  could  not  be  used  in 
any  of  the  military  rifles  used 
by  any  of  the  foreign  powers. 

"All  of  these  statements  can 
be  substantiated,  and  we  are 
ready  to  give  you  the  evidence 
that  you  may  require  on  this 
point.  The  charge  made  by  you 
is  so  serious  and  your  own  posi- 
tion as  Ambassador  is  of  such 
conspicuous  importance  at  the 
present  time  that  we  feel  it  de- 
volves upon  you  either  to  re- 
tract the  charge  as  publicly  as 
you  are  said  to  have  made  it,  or 
to  avail  yourself  of  the  right  to 
ascertain  the  facts  for  yourself. 

"Yours  very  truly, 
"REMINGTON  ARMS-UNION  ME- 
TALLIC CARTRIDGE  COMPANY, 

"S.  F.  PRYOR, 
"Vice-Pres.  and  Gen.  Mgr. 


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291 


"The  British  Government  has 
already  denied  that  soft-nosed 
or  dumdum  bullets  are  being 
used  by  its  troops." 

At  this  writing  I  have  not 
seen  the  German  Ambassador's 
reply. 

As  pertinent  to  this  whole  matter  of  the  credibility  of 
the  friends  of  Germany  who  are  seeking  to  influence  Amer- 
ican public  opinion,  I  beg  to  submit  in  parallel  columns 
extracts  from  an  "Oration"  of  von  BernstorfFs,  made  be- 
fore the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 
Science,  on  November  9,  1909,  and  extracts  from  "The 
Evolution  of  Modern  Germany/5  by  William  Harbutt  Daw- 
son,  London,  T.  Fisher  Unwin,  1908.  The  "oration"  was 
innocently  copyrighted  in  1910  by  the  American  Academy. 


BERNSTORFF,  1909: 

Impartial  students  of  Ger- 
many's position  will  find  them- 
selves confronted  by  economic 
facts  which  alone  sufficiently 
explain  why  Germany  has  to 
turn  its  attention  to  the  expan- 
sion of  its  influence  abroad, 
(p.  11.) 


DAWSON,  1908: 

The  candid  student  of  Ger- 
many's position  finds  himself 
confronted  by  economic  facts 
which  alone  sufficiently  explain 
why  Germany  is  to-day  turning 
its  attention  with  increasing 
urgency  to  the  expansion  of  its 
influence  abroad.  (pp.  335- 
336.) 


The  question  which  these 
facts  raise  is  primarily  eco- 
nomic: how  will  this  large  pop- 
ulation be  employed;  how  will 
it  live?  (p.  11.) 


The  questions  which  these 
facts  raise  are,  of  course,  pri- 
marily physical  and  economic. 
Where  will  this  large  popula- 
tion live;  how  will  it  be  em- 
ployed; how  will  it  be  fed? 
(p.  336.) 


292 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


I  cannot  but  think  that  if  this 
fundamental  fact  of  Germany's 
enormous  annual  increase  of 
population  were  intelligently 
grasped,  much  of  the  unfortu- 
nate polemic  to  which  my  coun- 
try's industrial  expansion  still 
gives  rise  in  certain  quarters 
would  be  moderated,  (p.  11.) 


One  cannot  but  think  that  if 
this  fundamental  fact  of  Ger- 
many's enormous  annual  in- 
crease of  population  were  intel- 
ligently grasped,  much  of  the 
unfortunate  polemic  to  which 
that  country's  industrial  expan- 
sion still  gives  rise  in  certain 
quarters  would  be  moderated, 
(p.  338.) 


Between  a  present  national 
ratio  of  300  persons  per  square 
mile  and  the  ratio  of  Saxony, 
Rhineland  and  Westphalia, 
there  is  a  difference  which  rep- 
resents a  population  of  some 
forty  millions,  and  within  that 
limit  there  is  clearly  a  very  con- 
siderable capacity  for  expan- 
sion. This  expansion  can,  how- 
ever, only  be  on  industrial  and 
not  on  agricultural  lines. 


Between  a  present  national 
ratio  of  300  persons  per  square 
mile  and  the  ratio  of  the  West 
of  Prussia  there  is,  however,  a 
difference  which  represents  a 
population  of  some  forty  mil- 
lions, and  within  that  limit 
there  is  clearly  a  very  consider- 
able capacity  for  expansion. 
This  expansion  will,  however, 
be  on  industrial  and  not  on  ag- 
ricultural lines. 


The  discoverer  of  this  literary  theft  (154)  gives  many 
references  to  similar  plagiarisms  in  this  oration,  not 
only  from  Dawson's  book,  "The  Evolution  of  Modern  Ger- 
many," but  also — by  proxy —  from  Dr.  Paul  Bohrbach 
("Deutschland  unter  den  Weltvolkern"),  from  whom  Mr. 
Dawson  had  quoted,  with  due  credit,  but  who  receives  "no 
credit  or  mention  from  Count  von  Bernstorff,  his  com- 
patriot." Another  fellow  German,  Professor  E.  Paulsen, 
is  similarly  used,  word  for  word,  but  also  without  the 
slightest  acknowledgement.  The  writer  adds:  "We  must 
contrast  Mr.  Dawson's  moderate  and  generous  treatment 
of  Germany,  rising  at  times  to  the  dignity  of  chivalry, 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  293 

with  the  fashion  in  which  the  Ambassador  uses  the  Eng- 
lishman's material  to  further  his  own  spiteful  innuendo 
against  England.  Not  only  does  he  annex  statements  of 
facts,  but  he  offers  as  his  own  Mr.  Dawson's  carefully 
argued  opinions  upon  questions  of  German  domestic  poli- 
tics, or  else  he  first  uses  the  original  author's  words,  and 
then  substitutes  his  own  deductions." 

And  this  plagiarist  is  the  person  who  has  undertaken  a 
portion  of  the  self-imposed  German  duty  of  instructing 
this  country  as  to  the  ethics  of  "neutrality,"  and  the 
morals  of  warfare! 

I  am  sorry  that  the  hope  expressed  by  the  chief  victim 
of  the  piracy,  Mr.  Dawson,  has  been  shown  to  be  fruitless. 
Mr.  Dawson  wrote  :  (ibid) 

"I  prefer  to  leave  the  matter  to  public,  and  especially  to  lit- 
erary, opinion,  only  adding  the  expression  of  a  hope  that  the 
Count's  ideas  of  literary  integrity  will  not  be  reflected  in  his 
further  activities  either  as  an  exponent  of  Germany  or  a  critic 
of  British  political  history  and  diplomacy." 

THE  GERMAN  APOLOGISTS.  THE  TRUTH. 

THE  GERMAN  FOREIGN  SEC-  THE  KAISER — From  an  Order 

RETARY  to  the  German  Ambas-  to  his  troops  in  East  Prussia, 

sador  in  London,  Aug.  4,  1914:  Nov.  5,  1914: 

"Please  dispel  any  mistrust  "Thanks  to  the  valor  of  my 

that  may  subsist  on  the  part  of  heroes,  France  has  been  severely 

the  British  Government  .  .  .  punished.  Belgium,  which  in- 

by  repeating  positively  formal  terfered  with  our  attack,  has 

assurance  that  even  in  the  case  been  added  to  the  glorious  prov- 

of  armed  conflict  with  Belgium,  inces  of  Germany."  As  The  Sun 

Germany  will,  under  no  pretense  says  (Dec.  30,  1914):  "As  to 

whatever,  annex  Belgian  terri-  the  question  of  the  annexation 

tory."  of  Belgium  by  Germany  in  di- 

Dernberg,  Nov.  21,  1914:  "We  rect  repudiation  of  the  unquali- 

have  no  ambitions  of  enlarg-  fied  pledge  of  August  4,  that  is 


294 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


ment  in  Europe  or  in  America."      a  matter  still  in  the  lap  of  the 

gods." 


THE  CBOWN  PBINCE,  in  an  in- 
terview with  von  Wiegand,  a 
United  Press  staff  correspond- 
ent, Nov.  20,  1914: 

"The  English  papers  have 
stated  that  I  am  a  thief  and 
that  I  have  personally  robbed 
and  pillaged  these  French 
houses  in  which  we  have  been 
forced  to  make  our  headquar- 
ters. Really — and  I  want  you 
to  tell  me  frankly — is  it  possible 
that  intelligent  people  in  Amer- 
ica can  honestly  believe  such 
things  of  me?  Can  it  be  possi- 
ble that  they  believe  me  capable 
of  stealing  pictures,  or  art  treas- 
ures, or  permitting  the  looting 
of  French  homes?" 


It  does  seem  incredible;  but 
the  statement  may  at  least  be 
contrasted  with  the  following 
extract  from  a  letter  to  the  New 
York  NATION,  under  date  of 
Oct.  15,  1914: 

"During  the  recent  battles  of 
the  Marne,  the  German  Crown 
Prince,  in  command  of  his 
army,  passed  two  nights  in  the 
Chateau  de  Baye.  The  state  in 
which  his  visit  left  the  unique 
collection  of  art  objects  made  by 
the  late  Baron  de  Baye  during 
remote  explorations  of  twenty- 
eight  years  has  been  described 
by  the  Baroness: 

"  'All  the  numerous  glass 
cases  in  a  gallery  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  long  were  broken 
and  pillaged.  Arms  and  unique 
jewels  and  medals  have  been 
stolen;  precious  vases  and  chis- 
elled gold  cups  stolen;  all  the 
magnificent  presents  with  which 
the  Czar  honored  M.  de  Baye  in 
remembrance  of  his  art  explora- 
tions in  Russia,  stolen  also.  In 
the  special  museum  of  1812,  ad- 
mirable icons,  tapestries,  minia- 
tures, and  the  like  have  been 
stolen.  And  souvenirs  —  the 
things  dearest  to  the  heart  — 
have  been  taken  with  the  rest. 
The  rarest  pieces  of  furniture 
and  pictures  had  been  boxed  up, 


A,  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


295 


with  a  choice  that  astonishes  in 
a  vandal ;  but,  in  the  precipitate 
retreat,  the  last  cases  were 
abandoned.' " 


REV.  THOMAS  C.  HALL,  Pro- 
fessor of  Christian  Ethics  at 
Union  Theological  Seminary, 
N.  Y.: 

"Frederick  the  Great  sent  us 
almost  our  salvation  in  Baron 
Steuben." 

In  this  statement  he  seems  to 
have  been  preceded  Dy  Mr.  Bar- 
tholdt,  the  same  Congressman 
who  has  been  so  active  in  trying 
to  bring  about  legislation  which 
would  prevent  the  Allies  from 
receiving  supplies  from  this 
country.  In  it  also  he  is  fol- 
lowed by  Mr.  Hensehel,  of  New 
York,  who  says,  in  his  pamphlet, 
"War  Hypocrisy  Unveiled," 
that,  "without  the  militarism 
of  Baron  Steuben,  'made  in 
Germany,'  and  the  land  and 
naval  militarism  of  France,  it 
is  doubtful  if  the  American 
Colonies  would  have  attained 
their  independence." 


THE  SUN  (Jan.  21,  1915), 
deals  as  follows  with  the  Rev. 
Thomas  C.  Hall  and  the  Steuben 
question : 

"That  the  Rev.  Thomas  C. 
Hall,  professor  of  Christian 
ethics  at  Union  Theological 
Seminary  in  this  town,  should 
wear  his  Order  of  the  Crown, 
third  class,  with  which  he  was 
decorated  by  the  Emperor  of 
Germany,  with  pride  is  a  natu- 
ral and  in  no  way  discreditable 
circumstance;  that  he  should 
defend  to  the  best  of  his  ability 
the  present  cause  of  a  foreign 
land  to  which  his  affections  are 
bound  by  strong  ties  of  associa- 
tion is  an  incident  neither  ex- 
traordinary nor  objectionable; 
but  that  he  should  in  the  de- 
fence of  Germany  and  castiga- 
tion  of  England  misstate  the 
history  of  his  adopted  country 
is  at  once  unnecessary  and  im- 
pudent. Yet  Professor  Hall  is 
guilty  of  this  when  he  says: 

"  'Frederick  the  Great  sent  us 
almost  our  salvation  in  Baron 
von  Steuben.'" 

The  Sun  continues  by  reciting 
that  it  had  already  convicted 
Bartholdt  of  this  same  misstate- 
ment  by  showing  that  Steuben 


296  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


came  solely  at  the  suggestion 
and  solicitation  of  the  French 
court  and  that  Frederick  the 
Great  had  nothing  whatever  to 
do  with  his  coming. 


It  adds: 


"That  Professor  Hall  should  seek  by  such  means  to 
support  his  argument  is  less  easily  pardoned  than  was 
Mr.  Bartholdt's  transgression.  Professor  Hall  has  en- 
joyed the  widest  educational  advantages.  He  is  an  in- 
structor of  young  men,  and  he  does  not  hesitate  to  set 
himself  up  as  an  instructor  of  the  whole  country.  He 
has,  in  his  professional  capacity,  ready  access  to  all  the 
authorities  on  any  subject  he  discusses.  He  should  be 
beyond  the  suspicion  of  misrepresentation.  Particularly, 
as  one  who  has  imbibed  at  two  great  universities  that 
German  passion  for  facts  of  which  we  hear  so  much,  he 
should  hold  such  a  perversion  in  intellectual  scorn. 

"Even  had  Professor  Hall  not  been  influenced  by  such 
respectable  considerations,  why  did  he  not  reflect  that 
one  such  false  assertion  must  inevitably  vitiate  his  whole 
plea  and  arouse  distrust  of  even  its  most  violent  and 
abusive  passages?" 

THE  GERMAN  APOLOGISTS.        THE  TRUTH. 

HERE  ALBERT    (155)    "For  a  RICHARD  HARDING  DAVIS  has 

German  the  fact  that  an  official  described   (157)   his  two    visits 

communication  is  issued  by  the  to  Rheims  and  summarizes  his 

army     headquarters     is     proof  article  in  a  letter  to  the  JV.  Y. 

sufficient  of  its  absolute  truth  Times:   (158) 
to  facts." 

Lieutenant  Wengler,  the  Ger-  "May  I  also,  as  evidence,  tell 

man    officer    who    directed    the  what  I  saw?     I  arrived  at  the 

shell-fire  at  Rheims,  says :  (156)  cathedral   at  3   o'clock   on   the 

"The  French  observer  on  the  afternoon  of  the  day  Lieutenant 


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297 


cathedral  was  first  noticed  on 
September  13.  After  that,  the 
French  artillery-fire  became  un- 
comfortably accurate.  Eighty 
shells  fell  here  in  one  day  alone 
— killing  only  one  cow. 

"The  fellow  continued  'on  the 
job'  quite  shamelessly  until  the 
18th,  when  I  aimed  two  shots 
at  the  cathedral,  and  only  two. 
No  more  were  needed  to  dislodge 
him.  One,  from  a  15-centimeter 
howitzer,  struck  the  top  of  the 
'observation- tower' ;  the  other, 
from  a  21 -centimeter  mortar,  hit 
the  roof  and  set  it  on  fire.  I 
used  both  howitzers  and  mortars 
eo  as  to  let  the  French  know 
that  we  could  shoot  well  with 
both  kinds.  I  wanted  to  dis- 
lodge the  observer  with  the  least 
possible  damage  to  the  fine  old 
cathedral,  and  the  result  shows 
that  it  is  possible  to  shoot  just 
as  accurately  with  heavy  artil- 
lery as  with  field  artillery.  The 
French  also  had  a  battery 
planted  about  100  yards  from 
the  cathedral.  It  isn't  there 
any  more." 


Wengler  says  he  fired  two  shells, 
one  of  which  hit  the  observa- 
tion-tower arid  one  of  which  set 
fire  to  the  roof.  Up  to  the  hour 
of  three,  howitzer  shells  had 
passed  through  the  southern 
wall  of  the  cathedral,  killing 
two  of  the  German  wounded 
inside,  had  wrecked  the  Grand 
H6tel,  opposite  the  cathedral, 
knocked  down  four  houses  im- 
mediately facing  it,  and  in  a 
dozen  places  tore  up  immense 
holes  in  the  cathedral  square. 
Twenty-four  hours  after  Lieu- 
tenant Wengler  claims  he  ceased 
firing,  shells  set  fire  to  the  roof 
and  utterly  wrecked  the  chapel 
of  the  cathedral  and  the  arch- 
bishop's palace,  which  is  joined 
to  the  cathedral  by  a  yard  no 
wider  than  Fifth  Avenue;  and 
in  the  direction  of  the  German 
guns  the  two  shells  fired  by 
Lieutenant  Wengler  had  already 
wrecked  all  that  part  of  the 
city  surrounding  the  cathedral 
for  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  .  .  . 

"  'Father/  he  says,  'I  can  not 
tell  a  lie.  I  did  it  with  only  two 
shells.'  .  .  . 

"Wengler  says  the  only  shells 
aimed  at  the  cathedral  were 
fired  by  him  on  the  18th,  and 
that  after  that  date  neither  he 
nor  any  other  officer  fired  a  shot. 
On  the  22nd  I  was  in  the  cathe- 
dral. It  was  then  being  shelled. 
I  was  with  the  Abbe  Chinot, 
Gerald  Morgan,  of  this  city, 
Captain  Gr anvil le  Fortescue,  of 


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DB.  LUDWIG  FULDA  (159) 
(The  Fatherlcmd,  N.  Y.)  says: 

"The  Cathedral  at  Rheims  has 
received  but  slight  damage,  and 
would  not  have  been  damaged 
at  all  had  its  tower  not  been 
misused  by  the  French  as  an 
observation  station.  I  would 
like  to  see  the  commander  of  an 
army  who,  for  the  sake  of  the 
safety  of  a  historical  monument, 
would  forget  the  safety  of  the 
troops  entrusted  into  his  care!" 

"In  another  part  of  the  same 
article,  Dr.  Fulda  says:  'One 
should  assume  that  he  who  has 
once  been  unmasked  as  a  liar, 
therewith  should  have  lost  the 
blind  confidence  of  the  impar- 
tial in  his  future  assertions." 


HERB  HATZFELDT,  Councillor 
of  the  German  Embassy  at 
Washington,  writing  ("for  the 
German  Ambassador")  to  Mr. 
Herbert  Welsh  of  Philadelphia: 

"You  have  apparently  a  false 
impression  of  our  political  insti- 
tutions and  are  not  acquainted 
with  the  Constitution  of  the 
German  Empire.  Otherwise  I 


Washington,  and  on  the  steps 
of  the  cathedral  was  Robert 
Bacon,  our  ex-Ambassador  to 
France. 

"The  'evidence'  of  Lieutenant 
Wengler  is  a  question  of  ver- 
acity. It  lies  between  him  and 
these  gentlemen.  I  am  content 
to  let  it  go  at  that." 

Americans  are  familiar  with 
the  more  detailed  accounts  of 
the  irreparable  damage  to  the 
ancient  church,  given  separately 
and  independently  by  Mr.  Whit- 
ney Warren,  Pierre  Loti,  and 
Mr.  Richard  Harding  Davis. 
Dr.  Fulda's  statement  as  to  the 
cathedral  is  denionstrably  false; 
his  remark  as  to  liars,  I  must 
do  him  the  justice  to  admit,  is 
quite  true.  He  should  be  re- 
garded as  speaking  with  the 
authority  of  a  specialist. 


MB.  WELSH'S  reply:  (160) 
"It  is  a  general  impression 
among  our  people  that,  although 
the  German  Empire  has  its 
Congress,  or  Reichstag,  com- 
posed of  elected  members,  who 
measurably  represent  the  popu- 
lar will,  nevertheless,  the  domi- 
nating voting  force  of  this  body 
really  centres  in  Prussia,  and 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


299 


could  hardly  understand  how 
you  could  speak  of  'autocracy' 
or  'purely  arbitrary  form  of 
government'  in  Germany.  To 
use  your  own  expression,  every- 
body in  our  country  has  'the 
right  and  the  habit  freely  to  ex- 
press himself  on  public  ques- 
tions." 


that  this  section  of  Germany 
(an  imperium  in  imperio)  con- 
trols the  rest  of  the  empire, 
and  is  in  turn  controlled  by  the 
aristocratic  military  party  of 
which  the  Kaiser  is  the  resplen- 
dent visible  head  and  the  actual 
guiding  hand.  It  is  further  our 
impression  that  he,  for  ultimate 
authority,  either  in  the  seen  or 
unseen  world,  looks  only  to 
God.  ..." 

"But  if,  in  Germany  as  in 
these  United  States,  everybody 
has  the  right  and  the  hattft 
'freely  to  express  himself  on 
public  questions/  how  do  you 
account  for  the  existence  and 
the  vigorous  enforcement  in 
Germany  of  laws  against  Use 
majesty,  under  which,  as  we  are 
informed,  persons  are  frequently 
punished  by  imprisonment  for 
spoken  or  written  words  crit- 
ical of,  or  disrespectful  toward, 
the  Emperor?  Such  freedom  of 
speech  in  this  country  is  partic- 
ularly protected  by  a  Constitu- 
tion, framed  by  our  statesmen 
of  the  18th  century,  who  strug- 
gled for  constitutional  liberties 
against  a  British  King.  He  was 
of  German  blood  and  partly  by 
Hessian  soldiers  he  sought  to 
subject  his  transatlantic  colo- 
nies to  the  tyranny  of  a  per- 
sonal will  so  autocratic  that,  as 
you  will  remember,  it  finally 
ended  in  madness." 


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A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


To  try  to  avoid  tedium,  I  may  vary  this 'demonstration 
of  the  untrustworthiness  of  these  gentlemen  by  contrasting 
their  statements,  not  with  the  facts,  but  with  other  state- 
ments made  by  themselves  or  by  their  colleagues.  I  may 
begin  with  the  most  celebrated  of  all : 

IRRECONCILABLE  GERMAN  STATEMENTS. 


VON  BETHMANN-HOIXWEG: 

August  4,  1914:  "Our  troops 
have  occupied  Luxemburg  and 
perhaps  are  already  on  Belgian 
soil.  Gentlemen,  that  is  con- 
trary to  the  dictates  of  interna- 
tional law.  .  .  .  We  were 
compelled  to  override  the  just 
protest  of  the  Luxemburg  and 
Belgian  Governments. 
The  wrong,  I  speak  openly,  that 
we  are  committing,  we  will 
endeavor  to  make  good  as  soon 
as  our  military  goal  is  reached" 
(speech  to  the  Reichstag). 


VON  BETHMANN-HOIXWEG: 

August  4,  1914:  In  conver- 
sation with  Sir  E.  Goschen — 
used  the  now  celebrated  phrase, 
referring  to  the  Belgian  neu- 
trality question,  about  going  to 
war  "over  a  scrap  of  paper." 
His  obvious  meaning  was  that 
Great  Britain  in  requiring  Ger- 
many to  respect  the  neutrality 
of  Belgium,  was  going  to  make 
war  just  for  a  word,  just  for 
what  he  regarded  as  "a  scrap 
of  paper"  i.  e^  was  making  & 
mountain  out  of  a  molehill. 


DERNBURG'S  version,   November 
21,  1914: 

"What  he  said  was  that  the 
neutrality  of  Belgium  could  not 
be  respected,  and  that  we  were 
sincerely  sorry  that  Belgium,  a 
country  that  in  fact  had  nothing 
to  do  with  the  question  at  issue 
and  might  wish  to  stay  neutral, 
had  to  be  overrun."  (161) 


VON  BETHMANN-HOLLWEG: 
January  20,   1915: 

"England  drew  the  sword  only 
because  it  believed  its  own  in- 
terests demanded  it.  Just  for 
Belgian  neutrality  it  would 
never  have  entered  the  war. 
That  is  what  I  meant  when  I 
told  Sir  William  Goschen  'that 
for  England  'the  Belgian  neu- 
trality treaty  had  only  the  value 
of  a  scrap  of  paper';"  (162) 
That  is,  he  (Von  Bethmann- 
Hollweg),  now  tries  to  get  the 
American  public  to  believe  that 
he  meant  the  exact  opposite  of 


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301 


what  he  said,  and  that  it  was 
Great  Britain  who  really  re- 
garded the  neutrality  of  Bel- 
gium as  a  mere  trifle. 


VON    BETHMANN  -  HOLLWEG — 
Statement  to  the  Americans, 
September  2,  1914:     (163) 
"Contrary  to  all  international 
law  the  whole  civilian  popula- 
tion of  Belgium  was  called  out 
and,  after  having  at  first  shown 
friendliness,   carried   on   in  the 
rear  of  our  troops  terrible  war- 
fare with  concealed  weapons." 

The  Kaiser  to  President  Wil- 
son: 

"I  solemnly  protest  to  you 
against  the  way  in  which  this 
war  is  being  waged  by  our  op- 
ponents. 

"The  Belgian  Government  has 
openly  incited  the  civil  popula- 
tion to  participate  in  the  fight- 
ing and  has  for  a  long  time 
carefully  organized  their  resist- 
ance. The  cruelties  practised  in 
this  guerilla  warfare 
were  such  that  eventually  the 
generals  were  compelled  to 
adopt  the  strongest  measures  to 
punish  the  guilty  and  frighten 
the  blood-thirsty  population" 
(September  4,  1914).  See  Chap- 
ter IV. 

Gerhart  Hauptmann,  to  Re- 
main Holland,  October  11,  1914: 


A  GERMAN  MILITARY  PROCLA- 
MATION circulated  in  those 
parts  of  the  Eastern  Prussian 
Provinces,  which  were  invaded 
by  the  Russian  Army.  Novem- 
ber 15,  1914. 

"When  the  enemy  crosses  the 
frontiers  of  Imperial  Germany 
there  ensues  a  struggle  of  na- 
tional defence  in  which  all 
methods  are  permissible.  It  is 
the  duty  of  every  man  capable 
of  bearing  arms  to  stem  the  in- 
vasion and  harass  the  enemy  till 
he  retires.  The  whole  popula- 
tion must  take  up  arms  to  keep 
the  enemy  always  in  a  state  of 
unrest,  to  seize  his  ammunition, 
to  stop  his  food  supplies,  to 
capture  his  scouts,  to  destroy 
by  any  means  whatsover  his  am- 
bulance and  field  hospitals,  and 
to  shoot  him  down  during  the 
night. 

"The  men  of  the  Landsturm 
who  perform  such  duties  should 
not  wear  uniforms,  because  by 
retaining  their  civilian  dress 
they  are  less  conspicuous  and 
thus  are  in  a  better  position  to 
attack  the  enemy  unawares." 
(164)  (See  p.  468.) 


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"  'The  peaceful  passage  of 
German  troops  .  .  .  was 
refused  by  Belgium/  The  Bel- 
gium Government  then  organ- 
ized an  unparalleled  guerilla 
warfare,  in  order  to  cover  its 
indefensible  position,  and  by 
that  act  .  .  .  struck  the 
terrible  key-note  of  the  conflict." 
(165) 


MUNSTEBBERQ : 

"The  Southern  peoples  are 
children  of  the  moment;  the 
Teutonic  live  in  the  things 
which  lie  beyond  the  world";  in 
the  infinite  and  the  ineffable" 


The  New  York  Stoats  Zeit- 
ung,  (1905),  edited  by  HEBMAN 
RIDDEB  : 

"One  of  the  most  acute  and 
even  prophetic  criticisms  of  a 
Prussian  policy  which  brought 
about  a  war  imperiling  the 
foundations  of  society,  and  shak- 
ing even  the  re-enforced  concrete 


DELBBUCK  : 

"Only  to  the  powerful  does 
power  accrue,  and  in  this  bid 
for  power  lies  hidden  a  deep 
moral  law.  That  nation  which 
possesses  the  power  of  self-con- 
trol to  limit  its  daily  pleasures 
in  order  to  accumulate  national 
sinews  of  war;  which,  to  put 
it  crudely,  would  rather  drink 
a  little  less  ~beer  and  smoke  a 
few  less  cigars  in  order  to  pro- 
cure more  guns  and  ships,  that 
nation  at  the  same  time  ac- 
quires the  right  to  assert  its 
individuality  and  to  bequeath 
the  mental  assets  which  it  has 
now  for  itself  in  the  course  of 
centuries  to  its  one  people  and 
to  humanity. 


New  York  Staats  Zeitung, 
September  26,  1914.  Edited  by 
HEBMAN  RIDDEB: 

"Germany  has  always  been  a 
good  and  just  neighbor  to  Bel- 
gium as  well  as  to  the  other 
small  powers,  such  as  Holland, 
Denmark  and  Switzerland, 
which  England  in  her  place 


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303 


upon  which  some  continental 
thrones  are  based,  is  here  sub- 
mitted : 

"  'If  Germany  to-day  in  gen- 
eral is  unbeloved,  and  is  able  so 
easily  to  become  suspected,  the 
first  and  principal  reason  for 
this  is  the  provocative  activity 
of  the  Pan-Germans,  their  vain- 
glory and  their  mania  for  treat- 
ing other  powers  with  mortify- 
ing insolence.  When  they 
complain  about  the  agreement 
between  France  and  England 
they  should  not  forget  that  their 
unmeasured  enmity  against 
Great  Britain  has  driven  that 
country  into  the  arms  of 
France.  The  Pan-Germans 
should  begin  by  criticizing  them- 
selves. They  are  a  small  min- 
ority, but  they  understand  how 
to  exert  a  kind  of  personal  in- 
fluence over  the  German  people 
which  any  day  might  prove 
itself  in  the  highest  degree 
fatal.' 

"It  is  all  true,  every  word 
of  it.  Events  have  justified  it. 
It  was  written  by  an  authority 
on  the  subject  whose  opinion 
will  not  be  questioned.  It  may 
be  found  in  the  editorial  files 
of  The  New  York  Staats  Zeitung 
of  nine  years  ago. 

"If  those  files  are  not  avail- 
able at  the  office  of  that  paper, 
the  Library  of  Congress  file  is 
within  reach."  (166) 


would   have  swallowed  up  one 
and  all  long  ago. 

"England  aims  at  being  mis- 
tress of  the  old  world  in  order 
to  occupy  either  an  equal,  or  a 
menacing  position  toward  the 
new  world,  as  circumstances 
may  dictate.  For  this  purpose 
she  has  encouraged  this  war. 
The  German  federated  states  of 
Europe  are  defending  themselves 
with  might  and  main,  and  are 
counting  in  this  struggle  for 
existence  on  the  good  will  of 
the  United  States  of  America, 
for  whose  citizens  they  cherish 
the  friendliest  feelings,  as  they 
have  proved  at  all  times.  All 
Americans  who  have  visited 
Germany  will  surely  bear  wit- 
ness to  that  effect." 


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DEBNBURG:     (167) 

"I  do  not  consider  it  wise, 
nor.  I  believe,  do  the  leading 
people  of  my  country,  for  Ger- 
many to  take  any  European 
country." 

On  pp.  24,  27,  28  will  be 
found  summaries  of  what  he, 
Prof.  Hseckel,  and  Rudolf  Mar- 
tini, ex-Minister  of  the  Interior 
do  "consider  wise."  It  is  in 
direct  contradiction  of  the  above 
statement. 


MAXIMILIAN  HARDEN,  editor 
of  the  Zukunft: 

"From  Calais  to  Antwerp, 
Flanders,  Limburg,  Brabant,  to 
behind  the  line  of  the  Meuse 
forts — Prussian!  .  .  .  The 
Southern  angle  with  Alsace  and 
Lorraine — and  Luxemburg  too, 
if  it  desires — to  be  an  indepen- 
dent federated  state." 

"If,  'the  spirit  back  of  the 
war,'  must,  it  will,  conquer  new 
provinces  for  the  majesty  of  the 
whole  German  spirit." 

"We  need  land,  free  roads, 
into  the  ocean." 

Professor  Forel  in  an  open 
letter  to  the  Journal  de  Geneve, 
addressed  to  Professor  Haeckel, 
sums  up  some  of  the  opinions  of 
some  of  the  "leading  people"  of 
Dr.  Dernburg's  country.  He 
says:  (168) 

"You  assert  there  that  it  is 
a  necessity  to  occupy  London, 
to  divide  Belgium  between  Ger- 
many and  Holland,  that  Ger- 
many had  to  get  the  Kongo 
State  as  well  as  a  great  part  of 
the  British  colonies,  the  north 
coast  of  France,  and  the  Baltic 
provinces.  Your  colleagues, 
Juliusberg,  Ostwald,  and  oth- 
ers, demand  moreover  that 
the  German  Kaiser  had  to  be 
elected  President  of  the  future 
United  States  of  Europe,  and 
the  lead  in  military  matters  has 
to  be  given  entirely  into  the 
hands  of  Germany.  Your  col- 


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305 


DERNBURG  writes  of  modern 
democracies  "and  especially  the 
German  one,  which  is  directed 
by  the  most  liberal  ballot  law 
that  exists,  even  more  liberal 
than  the  one  in  use  in  the 
United  States."  (169) 


VON  BETHMANN-HOLLWEG  ( ad- 
dressing the  American  people) 
— "Belgium  plotted  with  Eng- 
land and  France  in  1906  to  dis- 
regard her  obligations  of  neu- 
trality." 


DERNBURG  (August,  1914) : 
"It  deeply  distresses  us  to  see 
two  highly  civilized  nations — 
England  and  France — joining 
the  onslaught  of  autocratic 
Russia.  .  .  .  Russia's  atti- 
tude alone  has  forced  us  to  go 
to  war  with  France  and  with 
their  great  ally."  (171) 


leagues,  Onken  and  Lenz,  treat 
the  small  States  with  the 
utmost  contempt,  declaring 
them  to  be  inferior  and  par- 
asites, only  worthy  of  annexa- 
tion." 


MUNSTERBERG  (170)  says: 
"There  is  no  room  in  Ger- 
many for  a  President.  The 
idea  of  a  president  is  that  he 
draws  his  power  from  the  will 
of  millions  of  individuals.  The 
idea  of  the  Emperor  is  that  he 
is  the  symbol  of  the  State  as  a 
whole,  independent  of  the  will 
of  the  individuals,  and  there- 
fore independent  of  any  elec- 
tions." 


HANS  DELBRUCK  (addressing 
the  American  people: 

"Belgium  joined  the  Allies 
because,  when  the  coalition 
came  (two  against  seven)  'they 
considered  that  side  to  be  the 
strongest.' " 


DERNBURG,  (172)  November 
21,  1914:  "England  was 
being  outstripped  commercially 
by  Germany  and  therefore 
'faced  the  alternative  of 
.  .  .  being  one  industrious, 
less  luxurious,  and  more  pains- 
taking— or  of  fighting.  But 
.England  was  not  accustomed  to 
doing  her  own  fighting,  save 
with  her  fleet.  The  other  fel- 
lows .  .  .  could  fight  her. 
.  .  .  This  is  the  real  expla- 


20 


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A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


MuNSTERBERG:  "It  was  the 
moral  right  of  France  to  make 
use  of  any  sort  of  German  em- 
barrassment for  recapturing  its 
military  glory  by  a  victory  of 
revenge.  And  it  was  the  moral 
right  of  England  to  exert  its  en- 
ergies for  keeping  control  of  the 
seas  and  for  destroying  the  com- 
mercial rivalry  of  the  Germans. 
No  one  is  to  be  blamed."  ( 173) 


PROFESSOR  ADOLPH  LASSON: 
"We  are  morally  and  intellec- 
tually superior  beyond  all  com- 
parison, as  our  organizations 
and  our  institutions." 


DERNBURG:  "We  have  no  am- 
bitions of  enlargements  in  Eu- 
rope or  in  America."  (175) 


FIFTY-THREE  UNIVERSITIES  and 

THIRTY-TWO     HUNDRED     PROFES- 
SORS: 

"Our  belief  is  that  the  salva- 
tion of  the  whole  Kultur  of 
Europe  hangs  upon  the  victory 
which  the  German  militarism 
will  win 


nation  of  the  present  war.'" 
"On  England  alone  falls  the 
monstrous  guilt  and  the  his- 
torical responsibility."  Profes- 
sors Eucken  and  Haeckel. 


MUNSTERBERG  (a  little  later 
in  the  same  book),  admits  that 
he  has  "hurled  many  a  reproach 
against  France  and  England." 
He  thought  it  inexcusable  for 
them  to  use  the  advantage  of 
the  hour  to  join  Russia  in  this 
fight.  He  regretted  the  revenge- 
ful feeling  of  France  and  the 
ungenerous  attitude  of  England 
towards  its  new  rival  in  the 
world's  markets.  ( 174) 


PROFESSOR  MORRIS  JASTROW, 
JR.  :  "The  English  type  of  cul- 
ture represents  on  the  whole, 
the  most  harmonious  combina- 
tion of  traits  of  mind  and  char- 
acter," 

DERNBURG:  "When  she  is  vic- 
torious there  will  be  enough 
property  of  her  antagonists 
lying  about  the  four  parts  of 
the  globe  to  keep  Germany  from 
the  necessity  of  looking  any 
farther  .  .  ."  (176) 


DERNBURG:  "We  have  no  de- 
sire to  impose  our  views  upon 
others.  'We  are  out  for  con- 
quest on  peaceful  lines.' " 


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307 


DERNBURG  (address  at  New 
Rochelle,  U.  S.  A.)  :  "We  Ger- 
mans love  the  French  and  Bel- 
gians who  were  forced  into  the 
war." 


DERNBURG:  "Germany  has  no 
special  grudge  against  any- 
body." 


THE  GERMAN  PROFESSORS  : 
"The  French  have  shown  them- 
selves decadent  and  without  re- 
spect for  Divine  law."  "The 
Belgians,  with  foolish,  fanati- 
cism resisted  our  brave  troops." 

Lissauer,  in  "The  Chant  of 
Hate":  "French  and  Russian 
they  matter  not  .  .  .  We 
love  them  not,  we  hate  them 
not." 

Dr.  Fuchs  (in  a  book  on  the 
subject  of  preparedness  for 
war )  says :  "Therefore  the  Ger- 
man claim  of  the  day  must  be: 
The  family  to  the  front.  The 
state  has  to  follow  at  first  in 
the  school,  then  in  foreign  poli- 
tics. Education  to  hate.  Edu* 
cation  to  the  estimation  of  ha- 
tred. Organization  of  hatred. 
Education  to  the  desire  for  ha- 
tred. Let  us  abolish  unripe  and 
false  shame  before  brutality  and 
fanaticism.  We  must  not  hesi- 
tate to  announce :  To  us  is  given 
faith,  hope,  and  hatred,  but 
hatred  is  the  greatest  among 
them." 

"The  Kaiser  has  conferred  the 
order  of  the  Red  Eagle  upon 
Ernst  Lissauer,  the  author  of 
'Hatred  for  England,'  described 
by  Professor  Henderson  as  a 
veritable  'war  chant  of  hate/ 
certainly  one  of  the  most  ven- 
omous poems  in  any  language." 


THE  KAISER  to  President  Wil- 


PBOFESOR  LASSON:     "We  do 


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A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


son:  "Some  villages  and  even 
the  old  town  of  Louvain  .  .  . 
had  to  be  destroyed  for  the  pro- 
tection of  my  troops." 


good  deeds  to  all  people.  Lou- 
vain  was  not  destroyed — only 
the  houses  of  murderers." 


MUNSTEBRERG:  "The  cause 
of  the  war  was  the  desired  ex- 
pansion of  Russia." 

"As  a  matter  of  fact  it  was 
not  Germany  but  France  who 
commenced  the  war." — Eucken 
and  Haeckel,  Aug.  31. 


HANS  DELBRUCK  (177)  De- 
cember, 1913: 

"National  idealism  in  Ger- 
many is  in  danger  of  being 
turned  into  national  fanaticism, 
and  that  is  the  greatest  danger 
that  can  happen  for  the  health 
of  the  soul  of  any  people.  .  .  . 
The  only  great  danger  for  the 
future  of  the  German  Empire 
lies  in  foreign  policy.  We 
might  allow  ourselves  to  be 
drawn  into  a  war  which  would 
not  only  be  an  unspeakable  mis- 
fortune for  us  and  for  the  whole 
of  the  cultured  world — since  it 
would  be  unnecessary,  but  the 
outcome  of  which,  as  things  are 
at  present  in  Europe,  is  by  no 
means  certain.  .  .  . 

"Formerly  it  was  possible  to 
console  oneself  with  the  thought 
that  the  'All  Germans'  were  a 
small  sect,  hardly  to  be  taken 
seriously,  and  without  influ- 
ence. To-day  that  can  no  longer 
be  said.  The  All-German  Press 
is  widely  extended  and  has  a 


EUCKEN  AND  H^CKEL,  Aug. 
31.  "It  is  England  whose  fault 
has  extended  this  war  into  a 
world  war." 


HANS  DELBRUCK  ( 178) ,  March 
1915: 

"In  the  United  States  many 
have  taken  sides  against  Ger- 
many because  they  believed  that 
they  saw  in  the  victory  of  the 
Western  Powers  a  victory  of 
liberalism,  and  in  a  German 
victory  a  triumph  of  militarism. 
Quite  aside  from  the  fact  that 
Germany,  in  many  respects,  has 
far  more  political  liberty  than 
either  France  or  England,  the 
victory  of  the  Allies  would  be  a 
victory,  not  of  the  Western 
Powers,  but  of  England  and 
Russia.  .  .  . 

"Without  these  tremendous 
efforts  made  by  Germany,  called 
by  our  enemies  the  Trussian 
militarism/  the  mainland  of  Eu- 
rope would  long  since  have  been 
under  the  dominion  of  the  Cos- 
sacks. .  .  . 

"Therefore,  we,  in  Germany, 
have  the  firm  conviction  that  it 
is  not  for  our  own  independence 
alone  that  we  are  fighting  in 


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309 


very  zealous  following.  It  is 
not  surprising  that  anxiety  at 
the  success  of  the  All-German 
agitation  is  widespread." 


TWENTY-TWO  UNIVERSITIES  of 
GERMANY  : 

"It  is  not  true,  as  our  enemies 
assert,  that  the  German  army  is 
a  horde  of  barbarians  and  a 
gang  of  freebooters,  who  find 
pleasure  in  levelling  defenceless 
villages  to  the  earth,  and  in 
destroying  notable  monuments 


NINETY-ONE  PROFESSORS  AND 
MEN  OF  SCIENCE: 

"Every  German  would,  of 
course,  greatly  regret  if,  in  the 
course  of  this  terrible  war,  any 
works  of  art  should  be  de- 
stroyed." 


THE  KAISEB:  "We  are  one 
people,  we  know  no  differences, 
no  distinctions  of  states  or  par- 
ties." 


this  war,  but  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  culture  and  freedom 
of  all  peoples." 


GENERAL  VON  DISFURTH:  "It 
is  of  no  consequence  whatever  if 
all  the  monuments  ever  created, 
all  the  pictures  ever  painted,  all 
the  buildings  ever  erected  by 
the  great  architects  of  the  world 
be  destroyed,  if  by  their  destruc- 
tion we  promoted  German's  vic- 
tory." "For  my  part,  I  hope 
that  in  this  war  we  have  mer- 
ited the  title,  barbarians." 


HERR  WOLFSKEHL  (poet) : 
"None  of  us  Germans  to-day 
would  hesitate  to  destroy  every 
monument  of  our  holy  German 


Dr.  Lenard  (Professor  of 
Physics  at  Heidelberg)  (179): 

"The  central  nest  and  su- 
preme academy  for  all  hypoc- 
risy in  the  world,  which  is  on 
the  Thames,  must  be  destroyed 
if  the  work  is  to  be  done  thor- 
oughly. No  respect  for  the 
tombstones  of  Shakespeare, 
Newton  and  Faraday." 


DR.  FREDERICK  NAUMANN,  the 
leader  of  the  Radicals,  but  re- 
cently a  defender  of  the  viola- 
tion of  Belgium,  "choose  any 
place  in  Baden,  or  Wurtemburg, 
or  Bavaria"  (see  p.  460)  "and 
let  the  lieutenants  and  their 


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HEKR  VON  JAGOW,  Secretary 
for  Foreign  Affairs  (February, 
1915)  :  "England  is  trying  to 
force  upon  the  German  civilian 
population  death  by  starvation." 

Admiral  Behrcke:  "England 
has  in  view  the  subjugation  of 
Germany  by  starvation.  Ger- 
many no  longer  has  sufficient 
food  to  feed  her  people." 


HERB  ALBERT,  to  Americans: 

(181) 

"For  a  German  the  fact  that 
an  official  communication  is  is- 
sued by  the  Army  headquarters 
is  proof  sufficient  of  its  absolute 
truth  to  facts ;  and  the  truthful- 
ness of  this  German  official  an- 
nouncement is  beginning  to  be 
recognized  in  the  United  States 
as  well." 


colonel  conduct  themselves  there 
as  they  did  at  Zabern,  and  you 
would  see  what  would  happen ! " 
(180) 


GENERAL  VON  FALKENHATN, 
Minister  of  War  and  Chief  of 
Staff  (Jan.  16,  1915)  : 

"Germany  is  amply  supplied 
with  food.  She  can  fight  in- 
definitely." 

Dr.  Otto  Appel  (Feb.  7, 
1915)  :  "Germany  cannot  be 
starved  because  ...  of 
scientific  and  economic  methods 
to  insure  food  preparedness." 

Herr  Philip  Weincken,  Direc- 
tor of  the  North  German  Lloyd 
S.  S.  Co.: 

"The  plan  of  starving  us  out 
will  miscarry.  There  is  no  lack 
of  meat,  potatoes,  sugar,  milk, 
cheese,  or  fuel/' 


MAXIMILIAN  HARDEN,  to  Ger- 
mans generally:  (182) 

"Unfortunately  there  are 
those  who  exaggerate  small  suc- 
cesses till  they  appear  in  the 
eyes  of  the  crowd  to  be  over- 
whelming victories,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  they  conceal  the 
heavy  losses  under  the  colors. 
Cease,  cease,  thus  to  indulge 
any  longer  this  detestable  habit 
of  misrepresentation." 


I  think  I  may  at  last  dismiss  this  subject — of  the  credi- 
bility of  the  German  apologists — with  the  feeling  that  the 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  311 

unprejudiced  reader  should  be  convinced  that  it  would  be 
a  compliment  to  them  to  call  them  unreliable.  They  are 
so  entangled  in  a  network  of  mutual  contradictions,  incon- 
sistencies, sophisms,  blundering  errors,  and  actual  false- 
hoods, as  to  have  lost  all  claim  to  the  confidence  of  the 
public  they  are  addressing. 

The  war  was  begun  by  Eussia.  The  war  was  begun  by 
England.  The  war  was  begun  by  France. 

We  are  fighting  only  for  our  "place  under  the  sun."  We 
were  confined  by  an  "iron  band"  which  we  had  to  burst. 

Under  no  circumstances  will  we  take  a  foot  of  Belgian 
territory.  Belgium  entire  has  been  annexed  to  our 
"glorious  provinces." 

We  violated  the  treaty  of  neutrality  because  of  "military 
necessity."  There  never  was  any  such  treaty.  The  treaty 
expired  in  May,  1872.  The  French  first  violated  the  treaty 
by  flying  over  Belgium.  There  was  a  treaty,  but  it  had  lost 
moral  validity.  The  English  were  going  to  violate  the 
treaty.  The  Belgians  had  no  right  to  get  in  the  "way  of  the 
traffic."  Belgium  violated  her  own  treaty.  Belgium  "joined 
the  Allies  simply  because  she  considered  that  side  to  be 
the  strongest." 

Germany  has  "solemnly  .declared"  that  she  would  respect 
the  Monroe  Doctrine  everywhere.  Germany  "intends"  to 
respect  the  Monroe  Doctrine  in  South  America.  Germany 
will  respect  the  Monroe  Doctrine  in  North  America. 
"Canada  has  placed  herself  beyond  the  pale  of  American 
protection." 

Germany  protests  against  the  "barbarity"  and  "treach- 
ery" of  ununiformed  civilians  who  shoot  at  her  troops. 
Germany  orders  the  men  of  the  Landsturm  who  take  up 
"sniping"  to  wear  civilian  clothes  so  as  to  be  "less  con* 
spicuous." 

Germany  is  an  ideal  democracy.    There  is  no  room  in 


312  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

Germany  for  a  president  who  would  have  to  obtain  his 
power  from  the  consent  of  millions  of  individuals. 

We  are  kindly,  simple  minded  and  tender-hearted.  We 
hope  we  have  merited  the  title,  barbarians. 

We  hate  no  one.    We  hate  England. 

We  have  no  ambitions  of  enlargement.  When  we  conquer 
we'll  find  enough  property  of  our  antagonists  to  satisfy  us. 
We'll  remain  in  Belgium  and  take  the  strip  of  coast  to 
Calais. 

We  revere  and  respect  monuments  of  art.  It  makes  no 
difference  if  every  monument  in  the  world  were  destroyed. 

We  love  the  French  and  Belgians.  The  French  are  god- 
less and  decadent  and  the  Belgians  are  foolish  fanatics. 

The  Kultur  of  the  world  depends  on  our  success.  We 
have  no  desire  to  impose  our  views  on  any  one. 

We  are  "out  for  conquest  on  peaceful  lines/'  "Our 
might  shall  create  a  new  law  in  Europe." 

Germany  is  starving.    Germany  can  never  be  starved. 

This,  and  it  could  be  continued  for  pages  and  pages,  is, 
indeed  the  twitter  of  birds,  the  chatter  of  parrots. 

Phillips  Brooks'  apostrophe  to  the  "Little  Town  of  Beth- 
lehem" might  have  been  addressed  to  almost  any  German 
apologist:  "How  still  we  see  thee  lie." 

Let  us  hope  that  they  are,  as  it  seems  to  me  they  are, 
irreparably  damaging  their  own  cause  and  unconsciously 
and  blunderingly  revealing  the  truth  to  a  world  that  if  it 
were  not  horrified  would  be  amused. 

Cruelty  begets  falsehood.  The  Psalmist  recognized  the 
association  when  he  said :  "The  Lord  will  abhor  the  bloody 
and  deceitful  man." 

But  I  think  we  may  be  at  ease. 

"Solent  men  daces  luere  poenas  malefici." 


CHAPTER  XII. 

What    is   the    Truth    as   to   the    "Pre-eminence"    of    German 
"Kultur,"  of  German  Civilization,  of  German  Achieve- 
ment in  Letters,  Arts  and  Sciences? 

"Truth  About  Germany"  was  in  itself  sufficient,  consid- 
ering the  representative  character  of  its  authors  and 
editors,  to  raise  grave  doubts  as  to  the  value  of  German 
"culture"  unless  one  could  be  both  cultured  and  untruth- 
ful. 

The  view  of  culture,  as  we  understand  it,  in  its  effect 
on  the  individual,  is  at  variance  with  the  result  produced 
by  the  German  variety. 

An  American  of  German  parentage,  writing  in  defense 
of  his  brethren,  explains  the  universal  distaste  for  Ger- 
mans in  Europe  by  saying:  (183) 

"The  average  German,  whom  the  foreigner  sees,  is  aggressive, 
self-assertive,  loud  in  his  manner  and  talk,  inconsiderate,  petty, 
pompous,  dictatorial,  without  humor;  in  a  word,  bumptious. 
He  has,  in  many  cases,  exceedingly  bad  table  manners  and  an 
almost  gross  enjoyment  of  his  food;  and  he  talks  about  his 
ailments  and  his  underwear.  His  attitude  toward  women, 
moreover,  is  likely  to  be  over-gallant  if  he  knows  them  a  little 
and  not  too  well,  and  discourteous  or  even  insolent  if  he  is 
married  to  them  or  does  not  know  them  at  all.  He  is  at  his 
worst  at  the  time  when  he  is  most  on  exhibition,  when  he  is  on 
his  travels  or  helping  other  people  to  travel,  as  ticket-chopper 
or  customs  official."  (184) 

But  much  broader  views  of  this  subject  have  been  taken 
by  Professor  Brander  Matthews  (185)  and  by  Professor 
Eamsay : 

(313) 


314  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

After  expressing  his  surprise  that  scholars  like  Eucken 
and  Haeckel  should  be  possessed  of  the  conviction  that  Ger- 
many is  the  supreme  example  of  a  highly  civilized  state, 
and  the  undisputed  leader  in  the  arts  and  sciences  which 
represent  culture,  Professor  Matthews  continues  by  point- 
ing out  that 

"Certain  things  seem  to  show  German  'culture'  a  little  lack- 
ing in  the  social  instinct,  the  desire  to  make  things  easy  and 
pleasant  for  others,  an  instinct  which  is  the  dominating  influ- 
ence in  French  civilization.  .  .  .  It  is  to  the  absence  of  this 
social  instinct,  to  the  inability  to  understand  the  attitude  of 
other  parties  to  a  discussion,  to  the  unwillingness  to  appreciate 
their  point  of  view,  that  we  may  ascribe  the  failure  of  German 
diplomacy,  a  failure  which  has  left  her  almost  without  a  friend 
in  her  hour  of  need.  And  success  in  diplomacy  is  one  of  the 
Bupreme  tests  of  civilization. 

"The  claim  asserted  explicitly  or  implicitly  in  behalf  of  Ger- 
man culture  seems  to  be  based  on  the  belief  that  the  Germans 
are  leaders  in  the  arts  and  in  the  sciences.  So  far  as  the  art  of 
war  ....  and  so  far  as  the  art  of  music  are  concerned, 
there  is  no  need  to  cavil. 

"But  what  about  the  other  and  more  purely  intellectual  arts  ? 
How  many  are  the  contemporary  painters  and  sculptors  and 
architects  of  Germany  who  have  succeeded  in  winning  the  cos- 
mopolitan reputation  which  has  been  the  reward  of  a  score  of 
the  artists  of  France  and  of  half  a  dozen  of  the  artists  of 
America  ? 

"When  we  consider  the  art  of  letters  we  find  a  similar  con- 
dition. Germany  has  had  philosophers  and  historians  of  high 
rank;  but  in  pure  literature  .  .  .  for  a  period  of  nearly 
sixty  years — only  one  German  author  succeeded  in  winning  a 
world-wide  celebrity — and  Heine  was  a  Hebrew,  who  died  in 
Paris,  out  of  favor  with  his  countrymen,  perhaps  because  he 
had  been  unceasing  in  calling  attention  to  the  deficiencies  of 
German  culture.  .  .  .  No  German  writer  attained  to  the 
international  fame  achieved  by  Cooper  and  by  Poe,  by  Walt 
Whitman  and  by  Mark  Twain.  And  it  was  during  these  three- 
score years  of  literary  aridity  in  Germany  that  there  was  a 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  315 

superb  literary  fecundity  in  Great  Britain  and  in  France,  and 
that  each  of  these  countries  produced  at  least  a  score  of  authors 
whose  names  are  known  throughout  the  world.  Even  sparsely 
settled  Scandinavia  brought  forth  a  triumvirate,  Bjorsen,  Ibsen 
and  Brandes,  without  compeers  in  Germany.  And  from  Russia 
the  fame  of  Turgenef  and  of  Tolstoy  spread  abroad  a  knowledge 
of  the  heart  and  mind  of  a  great  people  who  are  denounced  by 
Germans  as  barbarous." 

As  Heine  is  the  one  German  who  has  beeen  pre-eminent 
in  literature  these  many  years,  it  is  interesting,  in  view  of 
recent  happenings,  to  recall,  as  entirely  apropos  to  Pro- 
fessor Matthews'  line  of  thought,  what  he  wrote  seventy- 
eight  years  ago : 

"Christianity — and  this  is  its  highest  merit — has,  in  some 
degree,  softened,  but  it  could  not  destroy,  that  brutal  German 
joy  of  battle.  When  once  the  taming  talisman,  the  Cross, 
breaks  in  two,  the  savagery  of  the  old  fighters,  the  senseless 
Berserker  fury  of  which  the  northern  poets  sing  and  say  so 
much,  will  gush  up  anew.  That  talisman  is  decayed,  and  the 
day  will  come  when  it  will  piteously  collapse.  Then  the  old 
stone  gods  will  rise  from  the  silent  ruins,  and  rub  the  dust  of 
a  thousand  years  from  their  eyes.  Thor,  with  his  giant's  ham- 
mer, will  at  last  spring  up,  cmd  shatter  to  bits  the  Gothic 
cathedrals  I !" 

Professor  Matthews  thinks  that  in  the  field  of  science, 
pure  and  applied,  the  defenders  of  the  supremacy  of  Ger- 
man culture  will  probably  take  their  last  stand.  He  goes 
on: 

"That  the  German  contribution  to  science  has  been  important 
is  indisputable;  yet  it  is  equally  indisputable  that  the  two 
dominating  scientific  leaders  of  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  are  Darwin  and  Pasteur.  It  is  in  chemistry  that  the 
Germans  have  been  pioneers;  yet  the  greatest  of  modern  chem- 
ists is  Mendeleef.  It  was  Hertz  who  made  the  discovery  which 


316  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

is  the  foundation  of  Marconi's  invention;  but  although  not  a 
few  valuable  discoveries  are  to  be  credited  to  the  Germans, 
perhaps  almost  as  many  as  to  either  the  French  or  the  British, 
the  German  contribution  in  the  field  of  invention,  in  the  prac- 
tical application  of  scientific  discovery,  has  been  less  than  that 
of  France,  less  than  that  of  Great  Britain,  and  less  than  that  of 
the  United  States.  The  Germans  contributed  little  or  nothing 
to  the  development  of  the  railroad,  the  steamboat,  the  automo- 
bile, the  aeroplane,  the  telegraph,  the  telephone,  the  phono- 
graph, the  photograph,  the  moving  picture,  the  electric  light, 
the  sewing  machine,  and  the  reaper  and  binder.  Even  those 
dread  instruments  of  war,  the  revolver  and  the  machine  gun, 
the  turreted  ship,  the  torpedo,  and  the  submarine,  are  not  due 
to  the  military  ardor  of  the  Germans.  It  would  seem  as  though 
the  Germans  had  been  lacking  in  the  inventiveness  which  is  so 
marked  a  feature  of  our  modern  civilization.  .  .  . 

"Nations  are  never  accepted  by  other  nations  at  their  own 
valuation;  and  Germans  need  not  be  surprised  that  we  are  now 
astonished  to  find  them  asserting  their  natural  self-appreciation, 
with  the  apparent  expectation  that  it  will  pass  unchallenged. 
The  world  owes  a  debt  to  modern  Germany  beyond  all  question, 
but  this  is  far  less  than  the  debt  owed  to  England  and  to 
France.  It  would  be  interesting  if  some  German,  speaking  with 
authority,  should  now  be  moved  to  explain  to  us  Americans  the 
reasons  which  underlie  the  insistent  assertion  of  the  superiority 
of  German  civilization.  Within  the  past  few  weeks  we  have 
been  forced  to  gaze  at  certain  of  the  less  pleasant  aspects  of 
the  German  character;  and  we  have  been  made  to  see  that  the 
militarism  of  the  Germans  is  in  absolute  contradiction  to  the 
preaching  and  to  the  practice  of  the  great  Goethe,  to  whom 
they  proudly  point  as  the  ultimate  representative  of  German 
culture."  '.  .  . 

He  adds  finally :  "The  most  obvious  characteristic  of  a  highly 
civilized  man  is  his  willingness  to  keep  his  word,  at  whatever 
cost  to  himself.  For  reasons  satisfactory  to  itself  Germany 
broke  its  pledge  to  respect  the  neutrality  of  Luxemburg  and  of 
Belgium.  It  is  another  characteristic  of  civilization  to  cherish 
the  works  of  art  which  have  been  bequeathed  to  us  by  the  past. 
For  reasons  satisfactory  to  itself  Germany  destroyed  Louvain, 
more  or  less  completely.  It  is  a  final  characteristic  of  civilized 
man  to  be  humane  and  to  refrain  from  ill-treating  the  blame- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  317 

less.  For  reasons  satisfactory  to  itself  Germany  dropped  bomba 
in  the  unbesieged  city  of  Antwerp  and  caused  the  death  of  inno- 
cent women  and  children.  Here  are  three  instances  where  Ger- 
man 'culture'  has  been  tested  and  found  wanting." 

Professor  William  Eamsay  (186),  whose  position  in  the 
scientific  world  is  of  the  very  highest,  says : 

"The  originality  of  the  German  race  has  never,  in  spite  of  cer- 
tain brilliant  exceptions,  been  their  characteristic;  their  metier 
has  been  rather  the  exploitation  of  the  inventions  and  discov- 
eries of  others;  and  in  this  they  are  conspicuous.  .  .  .  The 
aim  of  science  is  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  of  the  unknown; 
the  aim  of  applied  science,  the  bettering  of  the  lot  of  the  human 
race.  German  ideals  are  infinitely  far  removed  from  the  con- 
ception of  the  true  man  of  science." 

He  asks  as  to  the  result  of  the  annihilation  of  the  pres- 
ent ruling  German  despots: 

"Will  the  progress  of  science  be  thereby  retarded?  I  think 
not.  The  greatest  advances  in  scientific  thought  have  not  been 
made  by  members  of  the  German  race;  nor  have  the  earlier 
applications  of  science  had  Germany  for  their  origin.  So  far  as 
we  can  see  at  present,  the  restriction  of  the  Teutons  will  re- 
lieve the  world  from  a  deluge  of  mediocrity.  Much  of  their 
previous  reputation  has  been  due  to  Hebrew  residents  among 
them ;  and  we  may  safely  trust  that  race  to  persist  in  vitality 
and  intellectual  activity." 

In  his  article  on  "Germany  and  Democracy"  (187)  Dr. 
Dernburg  reiterates  the  old  assertion  that  "Germany  stands 
in  the  first  rank  in  applied  science."  In  the  opinion  of 
many  who  are  technically  qualified  to  judge  she  is  not,  and 
never  has  been  in  applied  science  (the  use  of  science  for 
the  improvement  of  the  conditions  of  human  life)  the  equal 
of  France,  England,  or  the  United  States.  Dernburg  spe- 
cifically instances  "chemistry,"  "electricity,"  and  "med- 


318  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

icines."  In  none  of  these  need  the  claim  be  admitted,  or 
even  considered. 

I  have  already  given  lists  (p.  316)  of  the  chief  modern 
additions  to  the  comforts  of  peace  and  the  effectiveness  of 
war  and  have  seen  that  as  to  practically  all  of  them  Ger- 
many has  been  merely  the  exploiter  of  the  discoveries  or 
inventions  of  other  races. 

In  medicine,  the  greatest  discovery  of  modern  times — 
antiseptic  surgery — is  to  be  divided  between  a  Frenchman 
and  an  Englishman.  Anesthesia  the  world  owes  to  Amer- 
ica. All  the  "medicines"  that  ever  came  out  of  Germany, 
all  the  minor  discoveries  that  the  most  liberal  or  partial 
judge  could  assign  to  her,  could  not  in  a  century  equal  in 
their  benefits  to  humanity  the  thousandth  part  of  those  due 
to  anesthesia  and  antisepsis. 

Professor  Trowbridge,  President  of  the  American  Acad- 
emy of  Arts  and  Sciences,  a  physicist  of  international  repu- 
tation, says  that  in  physical  science — embodying  the  laws 
of  light,  heat,  electricity  and  magnetism, — and  in  mathe- 
matics and  physical  chemistry,  the  great  names  are  Roger 
Bacon,  who  outlined  the  principle  of  the  telescope ;  Francis 
Bacon,  who  established  the  doctrine  of  inductive  reasoning 
(without  which  scientific  laboratory  work  would  be  impos- 
sible) ;  Newton,  who  demonstrated  the  law  of  gravitation ; 
Young,  who  established  the  undulatory  theory  of  light; 
Eumford  (an  Anglo-American),  who  proved  that  heat  has 
its  equivalent  in  motion ;  Faraday,  who  first  liquefied  a  gas 
and  who  with  Cavendish  and  Humphry  Davy,  discovered 
the  chief  fundamental  laws  relating  to  electricity. 

He  might  have  added  that  Priestley,  the  discoverer  of 
oxygen,  was  an  Englishman ;  Lavoisier,  the  father  of  mod- 
ern chemistry,  was  a  Frenchman;  Dalton,  the  deviser  of 
the  atomic  theory,  was  an  Englishman;  Davy,  who  first 
isolated  potassium,  was  an  Englishman;  Berzelius,  who 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  319 

made  analysis  an  exact  science,  was  a  Swede,  and  so  was 
Scheele.  Dumas,  one  of  the  most  eclectic  chemists  who 
ever  lived,  was  a  Frenchman;  Stas,  whose  determinations 
of  atomic  weights  form  now  the  basis  of  our  knowledge, 
was  a  Belgian,  born  in  Louvain;  Le  Blanc,  the  inventor 
of  the  alkali  process  which  bears  his  name,  was  a  French- 
man; Solvay,  who  devised  the  rival  process,  was  a  Belgian; 
Perkin,  the  discoverer  of  aniline  'dyes,  was  an  Englishman ; 
the  discoverers  of  the  Periodic  Law  were  Newlands,  an  Eng- 
lishman, and  Mendeleef,  a  Bussian.  (188) 
Professor  Trowbridge  gives  still  other  examples,  and  adds : 
"It  is  a  fact  that  the  great  physical  hypotheses  have 
been  Anglo-Saxon  in  origin,  and  culture  is  noticeably  lack- 
ing in  German  scientific  literature.  For  clearness  of  ex- 
pression and  style  we  must  go  to  the  French." 

Since  Sedan,  Germany  has  fallen  into  third  place  in  the 
subjects  he  mentions,  and  is  led  by  both  England  and 
France.  The  discovery  of  the  X-rays  in  Germany  was  a 
"fortunate  accident,"  and  remained  an  isolated  one,  until 
the  English  applied  it  to  the  theory  of  radio-activity,  firing 
the  faggots  which  the  Germans  piled.  "Those  Americans," 
adds  Professor  Trowbridge,  "who  are  loudest  in  their  praise 
of  German  culture  often  argue  from  an  imperfect  knowl- 
eedge  of  the  history  of  science. 

It  may  be  well  to  hear  what  two  of  the  greatest  Ger- 
mans, Metzsche  and  Goethe,  have  had  to  say  about  Ger- 
man "culture":  (189) 

"Let  us  hear  Nietzsche:  'Since  the  war  [1870]  all  is  glad- 
ness, dignity,  and  self-consciousness  in  this  merry  throng.  After 
the  startling  successes  of  German  culture,  it  regards  itself  not 
only  as  approved  and  sanctioned  but  almost  as  sanctified.  The 
units  of  this  caste  [the  scholar-caste,  Professor  Miinsterberg's 
caste]  are  too  thoroughly  convinced  that  their  own  scholarship 
is  the  ripest  and  most  perfect  fruit  of  the  ages — in  fact,  of  all 


320  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

ages — to  see  any  necessity  for  a  care  of  German  culture  in  gen- 
eral. Everywhere,  where  knowledge  and  not  ability,  where  in- 
formation and  not  art,  hold  the  first  rank — everywhere  in  fact 
where  life  bears  testimony  to  the  kind  of  culture  extant — there 
is  now  only  one  specific  German  culture,  and  this  is  the  culture 
that  is  supposed  to  have  conquered  France.'  In  what  sense  can 
German  culture  be  said  to  have  conquered?  In  none  what- 
soever; for  the  moral  qualities  of  severe  discipline,  of  more 
placid  obedience,  have  nothing  in  common  with  culture.  Mean- 
while let  us  not  forget  that  in  all  matters  of  form  we  are,  and 
must  be,  just  as  dependent  upon  Paris  now  as  we  were  before 
the  war,  for  up  to  the  present  there  has  been  no  such  thing  as 
an  original  German  culture.  We  ought  all  to  have  become 
aware  of  this  of  our  own  accord.  Besides,  one  of  the  few  who 
had  the  right  to  speak  to  Germans  in  terms  of  reproach  publicly 
drew  attention  to  the  fact.  'We  Germans  are  of  yesterday/ 
Goethe  once  said  to  Eckermann.  True,  for  the  last  hundred 
years  we  have  diligently  cultivated  ourselves,  but  a  few  cen- 
turies may  yet  have  to  run  their  course  before  our  fellow- 
countrymen  become  permeated  with  sufficient  intellectuality 
and  higher  culture  to  have  it  said  of  them,  it  is  a  long  time 
since  they  were  barbarians.' 

"  'What  species  of  men  have  attained  to  supremacy  in  Ger- 
many? This  species  of  men  I  will  name — they  are  the  Philis- 
tines of  culture.  But  Philistinism,  despite  its  systematic  or- 
ganization and  power,  does  not  constitute  a  culture  by  virtue 
of  its  system  alone;  it  does  not  even  constitute  an  inferior  cul- 
ture, but  invariably  the  reverse — namely,  firmly  established  bar- 
barity. For  the  uniformity  of  character  which  is-  so  apparent  in 
German  scholars  of  to-day  is  only  the  result  of  a  conscious  or 
unconscious  exclusion  and  negation  of  all  the  artistically  pro* 
ductive  forms  and  requirements  of  a  genuine  style.' " 

As  to  the  result  of  what  they  call  "Kultur"  I  agree  that : 

"In  so  far  as  German  'kultur'  was  good,  it  had  all  the  world 
to  dominate,  and  no  objection.  In  thirty  years  that  domination 
had  made  vast  progress.  But  against  the  domination  of  the 
Prussian  idea  the  objection  is  so  vital  and  intense  that  in  the 
great  world-rising^  against  it  there  is  only  too  much  prospect 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  321 

that  the  breath  of  German  'kultur'  will  be  clean  squeezed  out 
of  the  German  body.  Krupps  cannot  do  much,  for  it;  destruc- 
tion and  extermination — the  erasure  of  beauty,  the  expulsion  of 
piety — are  not  aids  to  it.  It  should  be  the  ally  of  those  things, 
not  their  foe.  Alas,  then,  for  German  'kultur,'  ridden  to  its 
death  by  the  ruthless  Prussian  demon — struggling  splendidly  to 
do  the  demon's  work,  but  fated,  who  can  doubt,  to  sink  in  due 
time,  gasping  and  bleeding,  foundered  by  that  fatal  rider.  The 
pity  of  it;  oh,  the  pity  of  it;  that  what  should  be  the  world's 
example  must  figure  as  its  warning;  that  this  hell  that  is  heat- 
ing for  the  Saxons  and  Bavarians — kindly  people  both — is  the 
kind  of  hell  that  awaits  all  people  who  fail  to  fight  off  Prussian 
domination  before  it  has  enchained  them.  It  is  a  bad  hell — a 
hell  of  Krupps  and  ruined  cities  and  violated  women,  and  tears 
and  misery  and  blood,  and  blackened  fanes."  (190) 


rectly  that  the  nearest  we  have  to  a  synonym  in  English  is 
not  "culture,"  but  "efficiency."  Let  me  present  an  Ameri- 
can view  of  the  workings  of  German  "Kultur" — with  the 
latter  meaning — in  Belgium.  (191) 

"Much  has  been  said — but  not  enough — concerning  the  mar- 
velous efficiency  of  the  German  war  machine.  The  stupendous 
task  of  the  field — in  the  transport,  commissary  and  medical 
departments,  as  well  as  in  the  grim  business  of  fighting — are 
performed  with  the  same  precision  and  competent  energy  as 
distinguish  German  industrial  methods. 

"When  the  reservist  is  summoned  to  the  colors  at  his  distant 
home  he  may  know  that  a  careful  state  has  made  preparation 
for  everything  that  may  befall  him.  His  uniform  is  ready,  the 
train  to  carry  him  to  the  front  waits;  he  will  find  prepared 
his  place  in  the  trenches,  his  hospital  bed  if  he  should  be 
wounded,  his  Iron  Cross  if  he  should  prove  a  hero,  his  grave 
diggers  if  he  should  fall.  Whether  his  fate  be  death  or  glory, 
efficiency  shepherds  him  to  the  end. 

j  "But  this  quality  of  thoroughness  is  not  exhibited  in  purely 
military  affairs  alone.  The  most  striking  evidence  of  it  that 
we  have  found  appeared  last  week  in  two  dispatches.  Singu- 

21 


322 


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larly  enough,  they  were  printed  in  adjoining  columns  on  the 
same  day: 


BLACKEST   FAMINE 

THREATENS  BELGIANS. 

ROTTERDAM,  Dec.  11.  —  "If 
somebody  does  not  come  to  our 
aid,  God  knows  what  will  be- 
come of  us,"  write  two  leading 
residents  of  Blankenberghe, 
West  Flanders,  in  a  pathetic 
appeal  they  presented  to-day  to 
the  representative  of  the  Ameri- 
can Commission  for  Relief  in 
Belgium. 

These  men  were  deputized  to 
seek  help  on  behalf  of  Heyst, 
Wenduyne  and  several  other 
communities  as  well  as  Blan- 
kenberghe, in  all  of  which  they 
say  "the  situation  is  so  grave 
that  if  in  the  near  future  food 
does  not  arrive  they  will  be 
plunged  in  blackest  famine." 


SEND  FRENCH  FLOUR 

BACK  TO  GERMANY. 

BERLIN,  Dec.  11. — A  visitor  at 
the  headquarters  of  one  of  the 
German  armies  in  France  sends 
his  impressions  here.  Of  all  the 
impressions  of  the  trip  one  of 
the  most  striking  is  that  left  by 
the  countless  stacks  of  un- 
threshed  grain,  stretching  for 
miles  in  every  direction 
throughout  the  granary  of 
northern  France. 

Over  100  German  threshing 
machines  of  the  largest  size  are 
working  in  the  region  occupied 
by  the  army,  and  six  new  ones 
were  encountered  to-day  plug- 
ging forward  to  reinforce  those 
harvest  batteries,  which  are 
doing  work  quite  as  important 
as  that  of  the  42-centimeter 
cannon. 

The  army  is  not  only  living 
on  the  supplies  of  flour  and  meat 
derived  from  this  section  of  the 
country,  but  is  actually  sending 
wheat  and  flour  back  to  Ger- 
many. 


"We  venture  to  say  that  no  more  convincing  testimony  could 
be  given  of  the  efficiency  that  has  made  Germany  a  leader  in 
war  as  well  as  in  many  of  the  arts  of  peace — the  Belgians 
starving,  while  the  victorious  army  strips  'the  granary  of 
northern  France'  of  its  harvests,  feeds  itself  and  sends  the  sur- 
plus home  across  the  conquered  territory. 

"There  has  been  considerable  discussion  during  the  war  of  the 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  323 

national  ideals  of  America  and  Germany.  It  might  be  difficult 
to  represent  them  more  accurately  than  in  two  contrasting 
pictures — shiploads  of  American  food  pouring  into  Belgium  by 
way  of  Holland,  while  carloads  of  French  grain  roll  through 
the  famine-haunted  land  on  their  way  to  Germany. 

"The  two  incidents  recorded  serve  to  emphasize  once  more 
the  relentlessly  efficient  methods  employed  to  insure  the  sub- 
mission of  Belgium.  While  the  American  people  have  responded 
with  splendid  generosity  to  the  appeal  of  the  sufferers,  the  in- 
vaders have  never  swerved  from  their  businesslike  procedure  of 
making  the  victims  pay  for  their  patriotic  resistance.  On  the 
day  when  the  newspapers  printed  the  two  dispatches  quoted 
the  Belgian  Prime  Minister,  Baron  de  Broqueville,  made  this 
statement : 

"  'The  war  levies  that  have  been  and  are  still  being  made 
on  almost  every  community  in  Belgium  have  exhausted  the 
capital  resources  of  our  country,  one  of  the  objects  of  these 
levies  being  to  cripple  and  destroy  Belgium's  commerce  and 
industry. 

"  The  food  requisitions  relentlessly  made  upon  our  communi- 
ties in  all  quarters  have  not  only  been  cruel  but  excessive,  and 
are  in  violation  of  the  hitherto  universally  recognized  prin- 
ciples of  international  law.  Famine  has  so  far  been  prevented 
only  by  the  food  provided  through  the  benign  agency  of  the 
Commission  for  Belgian  Relief,  established  and  supported  by 
the  generosity  of  American  and  English  people.' 

"In  the  minds  of  most  Americans,  we  think,  the  case  of  Bel- 
gium is  and  must  remain  the  supreme  issue  of  the  war,  involv- 
ing, as  it  does,  the  common  rights  of  humanity  and  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  international  security.  Upon  this  question, 
too,  the  advocates  of  the  German  cause  lavish  their  most  elabo- 
rate defensive  arguments.  We  have  yet  to  find  one  of  them, 
however,  who  has  attempted  to  justify  the  monstrous  practice 
of  extorting  crushing  tribute  from  conquered  and  unresisting 
cities. 

"This  is  a  matter  upon  which  we  have  already  expressed  our- 
selves, and  perhaps  an  opinion  from  another  source  will  be  of 
interest.  In  its  current  issue  Collier's  Weekly  says: 

"  'An  American  newspaper  man  named  Karl  H.  von  Wiegand 
has  had  a  pleasant  interview  with  Crown  Prince  Frederick 
William  of  Germany.  The  Kaiser's  son  denounces  the  present 


324  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

struggle  as  "the  most  stupid,  senseless  and  unnecessary  war  of 
modern  times,"  and  then  goes  on  to  explain  how  entirely  his 
own  side  is  justified.  We  are  further  assured  that,  "like  a 
great  majority  of  all  Germans,  he  is  unable  exactly  to  under- 
stand why  there  is  not  more  sympathy  in  the  United  States  for 
Germany." 

"  'The  same  papers  which  reported  this  precious  interview 
reported  also  these  items:  First,  that  the  German  government 
has  decided  to  levy  on  Belgium  a  war  tax  of  $7,000,000  per 
month;  second,  that  Germany  has  paid  Luxemburg  $318,200  for 
the  violation  of  her  neutrality,  passage  of  troops,  etc.;  third, 
that  Brand  Whitlock  reports  "the  German  government  renews 
its  official  declaration  that  conditions  in  Belgium  are  as  repre- 
sented, and  views  with  great  gratification  the  generous  efforts 
of  the  American  people  to  relieve  the  starving  population  there. 
Without  such  assistance  there  must  be  famine." 

"'Now,  the  American  people  cannot  be  expected  to  sympa- 
thize with  this  hog-and-wolf  militarism;  to  override  the  weak, 
plunder  the  helpless,  and  rob  the  miserable  to  death  is  no  road 
to  our  regard.  Those  who  fawn  on  Frederick  William  repre- 
sent him  as  a  young  man  of  intelligence  and  imagination.  Even 
so  he  will  never  understand  the  bottomless  condemnation  in 
which  he  and  his  are  held  in  this  country,  because  he  will 
never  see  or  admit  the  infernal  wrongs  committed  by  his  fellow- 
countrymen.  The  wolf  always  acquits  himself.' 

"No  doubt  the  severe  view  here  expressed  will  be  shared  by 
many  Americans.  Yet  we  think  it  would  be  unfair  to  attribute 
this  admitted  official  atrocity,  the  levying  of  blackmail  upon 
a  wronged  community,  to  mere  wanton  greed  on  the  part  of  the 
invaders. 

"It  is  all  a  question  of  policy,  of  national  philosophy.  Mili- 
tarism is  above  all  things  efficient.  It  demands  absolute,  un- 
relenting efficiency  in  the  supreme  business  of  war.  The  object 
of  war,  it  holds,  is  not  only  to  defeat  the  enemy,  but  to  crush 
him,  to  strip  him  of  any  power  of  reprisal,  to  paralyze  him  with 
punishment  and  terror,  as  a  warning  to  himself  and  to  others. 
If  the  Belgians  can  be  beggared  as  well  as  conquered,  it  will 
be  so  much  the  longer  before  they  will  be  able  to  threaten  the 
rule  imposed  upon  them. 

"There  is  a  difference  in  method,  but  not  in  principle,  between 
the  42- centimeter  siege  gun,  the  shipments  of  French  grain 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  325 

through  starving  Belgium,  and  the  war  tribute  of  $7,000,000 
a  month  extorted  from  the  famine-burdened  nation.  Each  is 
a  product  of  efficiency — misapplied." 

The  claims  of  America  itself  have  been  put  forward 
amusingly  by  Mr.  Vance  Thompson  (192)  in  an  alleged 
interview  with  an  American  who  was  said  to  have  just 
been  listening  to  a  discourse  on  "the  debt  this  country 
owes  to  Germany/*  delivered  by  a  "German  professor  from 
Harvard."  The  interview  proceeded  as  follows: 

"Like  a  good  many  of  us  I  have  spent  years  in  Germany. 
And  I  say  that  we  owe  less  to  Germany  than  to  any  one  of  the 
great  nations.  We  have  a  far  heavier  debt  to  England,  France 
and  Italy.  And  Germany,  mark  you,  has  taken  from  us  a  thou- 
sand times  more  than  she  has  given  us." 

"  'Go  on,'  I  said,  'you  interest  me  strangely.' 

"'Well,  just  at  present  Germany  is  making  war.  What  is 
she  doing  it  with  ?  With  inventions  due  to  Americans.' 

"And  then  he  named  them — Maxim,  Holland  and  the  Wrights, 
the  inventors  of  the  rapidfire  gun,  the  submarine  and  the  aero- 
plane, which  latter  was  invented  at  a  time  when  all  the  Ger- 
man scientists  were  declaring  a  'heavier  than  air3  was  im- 
possible. 

"  "There  you  are,'  he  went  on,  'even  her  own  game  of  war 
Germany  has  to  play  in  terms  of  American  invention.  General 
von  Heeringen,  in  command  of  the  Western  armies,  was  frank 
enough  to  admit  a  day  or  two  ago  that  without  the  automobile, 
the  aeroplane,  the  telephone  and  wireless  telegraphy  Germany 
would  not  wage  war  for  twenty-two  hours.  I  think  the  tele- 
phone is  an  American  invention,  eh?  And  the  aeroplane.  Now 
the  automobile  belongs  to  France  and  the  wireless  telegraph  to 
Italy.  The  boot  seems  to  be  on  the  other  foot.' " 

"He  quoted  from  Dr.  Emil  Reich  (p.  36),  who  was,  he  said, 
a  man  of  rare  mental  integrity.  And  it  seems  that  Doctor 
Reich  pointed  out  there  was  nothing  quite  so  foolish  as  the 
American  imitation  of  German  educational  methods,  which  was 
common  in  the  last  century,  saying:  'It  is  scarcely  a  matter  of 
doubt  that  the  Americans  entertain  far  too  exaggerated  an 


326  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

opinion  of  the  value  of  German  methods  and  German  research  in 
all  that  applies  to  the  humanities,  such  as  history,  philosophy, 
philology,  literature  and  art.'  That  was  in  1907.  It  was  a 
dark  age  in  our  universities,  heavy  with  German  pedantry. 
That  was  the  day  when  the  unlearned,  even  in  the  colleges, 
spoke  of  the  'thorough  German*  and  the  'brilliant  but  super- 
ficial Frenchman.' 

"  'As  to  art,'  he  went  on  scornfully,  'we  don't  owe  them  much 
on  that  score — nothing  but  the  bad  lessons  of  the  Munich  school, 
which  ruined  an  entire  generation  of  American  painters  and 
illustrators.' 

"And  chemists,  you  say?  There  you  come  home  to  me. 
Our  American  chemists  take  the  lead  everywhere  except  in 
France — and  we  are  no  bad  second  to  the  French  chemists. 
Out  of  the  ten  million  or  so  Germans  in  this  country  I  should 
be  surprised  if  you  could  find  a  dozen  distinguished  chemists. 
No,  the  Americans  lead. 

"What  annoys  me  most  of  all  is  the  pretension  of  that  pro- 
fessor from  Harvard  that  the  Germans  have  a  systematic  and 
scientific  way  of  doing  things  which  should  be  to  us  an  example 
and  an  ideal.  That  is  the  greatest  absurdity  that  was  ever  put 
into  words.  The  modern  and  scientific  organization  of  business 
is  as  distinctly  an  American  invention  as  is  the  reaping  machine 
or  the  steamboat  or  the  cylinder  press  or  the  daily  newspaper. 
We  have  been  the  teachers ;  we  have  taught  every  other  nation. 
We've  taught  them  how  to  manufacture  and  how  to  sell  and  how 
to  total  the  score  on  a  cash  register  of  American  invention,  or 
make  out  a  bill  on  an  American  invented  typewriter.  System? 
We  made  it  and  invented  the  tools  for  it.  What  is  to  Ger- 
many's credit  is  that  she  has  been  one  of  our  aptest  pupils  in 
methodizing  business  and  trade,  just  as  the  Japanese  are  our 
aptest  pupils  in  scientifically  organized  manufacturing.  Now 
this  is  known  to  every  practical  business  man  on  earth.  Even  a 
'German  professor  from  Harvard'  should  know  it. 

"'Why?'  Mr.  Thompson  asked;  but  his  interlocutor  had  no 
mind  for  trivialtiea;  he  was  waving  the  Stars  and  Stripes  glo- 
riously. 

"What  did  he  mean  by  talking  of  'German  efficiency'  to  a 
nation  that  first  gave  the  word  efficiency  a  real  meaning?  As 
a  matter  of  fact  we  have  invented  everything  that  makes  for 
efficiency,  from  the  sewing  machine  to  the  incandescent  light 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  327 

that  hangs  above  it.  Certainly  we  have  bought  dyestuffs  from 
Germany ;  but  that  was  because  we  could  buy  them  cheap ;  it  is 
not  a  debt  to  German  civilization.  We  owe  the  same  sort  of 
thing  to  Hungary  for  paprika  and  to  Argentina  for  leather. 

"In  'system'  and  'efficiency/  as  well  as  in  science  and  art,  we 
owe  the  greatest  debt  to  ourselves.  The  real  trouble  with  the 
latter-day  American  is  that  he  is  too  modest,  too  credulous,  too 
diffident.  That  is  a  sad  and  certain  truth.  When  a  foreign 
professor  hectors  him  he  says  meekly:  'Oh,  I'll  try  to  be  more 
like  you.5  By  the  way,  that  is  one  reason  why  the  Americans 
are  so  popular  in  Germany;  it  is  because  they  admit  every 
claim  to  German  superiority. 

"And  here,"  Mr.  Thompson  continues,  "I  believe  we  have  come 
with  startling  unexpectedness  upon  a  great  truth. 

"Should  you  look  for  the  real  causes  of  this  war  you  might 
find  them  in  the  fact  that  France,  England,  Russia — even  Bel- 
gium— have  always  laughed  at  these  pretensions.  I  don't  say 
it  is  the  real  causa  causans  of  the  war,  but  unquestionably  it 
helped  to  foster  the  military  spirit  in  Germany.  The  French 
wits  made  fun  of  everything  German — the  way  the  German 
ate,  his  beer  drinking,  the  clothes  he  wore,  the  hats  and  dresses 
of  his  womenkind ;  and  the  English  stared  coldly  at  his  attempts 
at  sport  and  his  peculiarity  of  wearing  evening  dress  in  the 
afternoon,  at  his  beard  and  hair;  and  truculently  the  German 
retorted:  'But,  by  jingo!  I  can  fight!'  He  can;  and  he  made 
his  monstrous  war  machine." 

An  American  weekly  (193)  has  well  symbolized  intelli- 
gent American  opinion  on  the  announced  intent  and  the 
associated  effort  to  spread  German  "Kultur"  to  other  coun- 
tries in  spite  of  their  lack  of  admiration  for  it,  their  absence 
of  sympathy  with  it,  ther  contempt  for  many  of  its  tenets 
and  its  manifestations,  and  their  entire  unwillingness  to 
receive  it  or  to  be  inoculated  with  it. 

"In  the  year  of  our  Lord  623  Mohammed,  the  son  of  Ab- 
dallah  of  the  tribe  of  Koreish,  began  to  spread  Kultur  by  the 
sword.  He  did  not  spell  it  that  way,  but  that  is  a  detail.  His 
energy  and  his  efficiency  methods,  combined  with  his  outbursts 


328  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

of  hysterical  fury,  were  so  prevailing  that  when  he  died  in  632, 
in  the  manly  prime  of  his  early  sixties,  Arabia  had  been  brought 
under  his  scepter.  His  successors  carried  the  great  work  on. 
To  Palestine,  Mesopotamia  and  Persia,  to  Egypt,  North  Africa 
and  Spain,  they  triumphantly  bore  their  faith  in  one  God  and 
his  prophet  Mohammed,  cheerfully  committing  all  the  slaughter 
dictated  by  'military  necessity.' 

"The  'inferior  civilizations'  had  curious-  vitality,  however,  and 
the  efforts  of  the  faithful  to  turn  the  Western  flank  of  the 
Christian  allies  failed.  Partly  in  consequence  of  this  misfor- 
tune, things  began  to  go  wrong  on  the  Eastern  battle  front. 
The  Caiifate  of  Bagdad  admitted  'reverses'  in  1258,  and  in  1492 
the  Moors  withdrew  from  Spain  to  occupy  'more  advantageous 
positions'  south  of  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar. 

"Whether  because  the  plans  of  the  Mohammedan  General 
Staff  had  miscarried,  or  because  of  'weakness'  attributable  to 
the  acknowledged  'pacificism'  of  their  religion,  the  small  Chris- 
tian states  of  Europe  developed  a  prejudice  against  the  practice 
of  propagating  culture  by  militarism.  They  did  not  disavow 
the  'duty  to  be  strong,'  and  some  of  them  were  unkind  to 
heretics,  but  having  only  an  'inferior'  civilization  they  asso- 
ciated aggressive  war  with  such  material  ends  as  territorial  ex- 
pansion, tribute  money,  and  commercial  opportunity.  It  is 
doubtful  if  they  clearly  visualized  the  comprehensive  relation 
of  bombardment  and  rapine  to  the  religion  of  Christ,  or  fully 
appreciated  the  value  of  reprisals  upon  non-combatants  as  a 
means  of  grace. 

"Yet  Europe  prospered  notwithstanding  its  irresolution,  and 
civilization,  of  a  kind,  made  headway.  Literature  was  pro- 
duced, art  showed  a  degree  of  vitality,  and  after  a  while  the 
progress  of  physical  science  rendered  possible  a  somewhat  re- 
markable improvement  in  the  material  condition  of  mankind. 
All  this  possibly  contributed  to  spiritual  inertia.  Ultimately 
an  opinion  prevailed  that  things  were  going  well.  In  certain 
quarters,  indeed,  the  notion  arose  and  gained  acceptance  that 
war  for  any  purpose  or  on  any  pretext  was  no  longer  necessary. 
Day  dreamers  began  to  talk  of  general  disarmament  and  uni- 
versal peace. 

"It  was  therefore  with  a  measure  of  surprise  that  the  world 
awoke  in  the  early  days  of  August  last  to  realize  that  the  virile 
pragmatism  of  the  son  of  Abdalltih  had  not  in  fact  gone  from 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  329 

remembrance.  It  had  found  lodgment  in  the  dutiful  soul  of  a 
stalwart  folk  committed  no  less  than  he  to  the  forcible  expan- 
sion of  culture. 

"Another  surprise,  milder  but  not  uninteresting,  was  forth- 
coming when  the  'intellectuals'  of  the  New  Islamism  began  emo- 
tionally to  appeal  to  an  infidel  world  beyond  the  Rhine  to 
'understand*  them  and  their  'culture,'  and,  in  particular,  to 
hold  their  gunners  guiltless  of  wrongdoing.  This  appeal  has 
seemed  to  both  the  lay  and  the  academic  mind  in  America  in- 
consequential, even  inconsistent.  It  is  at  least  perplexing. 
Islam,  so  far  as  we  know,  never  explained  or  asked  to  be  under- 
stood. There  is  no  evidence  that  it  cared  what  the  infidel 
thought  about  anything. 

"We  leave  to  the  experts  of  international  law  the  question 
of  Germany's  technical  culpability,  and  the  question  of  the  pro- 
priety of  action  by  neutral  nations  to  demand  of  her  an  expla- 
nation of  her  conduct  as  a  signatory  party  to  conventions  signed 
by  them.  The  appeal  of  Germany's  intellectuals  is  to  public 
opinion.  As  humble  contributors  to  that  opinion  it  is  our 
judgment  and  verdict,  that  upon  the  showing  of  facts  thus  far 
submitted,  Germany  has  reverted  to  the  theory  and  practice  of 
Islam,  and  is  attempting  to  spread  her  'culture'  by  the  sword." 

Under  the  title,  "An  Intellectual  Moratorium/'  another 
American  paper  (194)  has  entertainingly  reviewed  the  lit- 
erature and  brought  forward  some  new  evidence : 

"The  German  professors  having  had  their  say  about  the  war, 
their  colleagues  abroad  are  beginning  to  react,  and  the  fashion- 
able pastime  of  the  moment  among  the  learned  of  other  nations 
consists  in  taking  cockshies  at  German  reputations,  or,  to  use 
the  current  phrase,  'pricking  the  bubble  of  Teutonic  preten- 
sions.' 

"Since  Sir  William  Kamsay  set  the  example  many  others 
have  come  forward  enthusiastically  in  support  of  his  conclu- 
sions. Professor  Sayce,  the  eminent  Assyriologist,  thinks  it 
'astonishing  that  British  scholars  and  politicians  should  still 
be  found  speaking  of  "our  intellectual  debt  to  Germany." '  In 
his  own  departments  of  study  he  admits  that  the  German 
scholar  'can  appropriate  other  men's  discoveries'  and  'labori- 


330  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

ously  count  syllables  and  words  and  pile  up  volumes  of  indices' ; 
but  beyond  that  he  is  fit  for  nothing  but  building  'theories 
which  take  no  regard  of  facts,  though  as  coming  from  Germany 
we  are  told  that  they  must  be  regarded  as  infallible.'  In  science, 
philosophy,  letters  and  art — only  excepting  music — the  Ger- 
mans have  been  strangely  unproductive  in  comparison  with 
their  rivals;  in  a  word,  their  manifest  destiny  in  the  intellectual 
world  is  to  play  the  part  of  'hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of 
water'  for  Western  Europe. 

"Not  all  of  the  professors  allowed  this  criticism  to  pass  un- 
challenged. Professor  H.  H.  Turner  objected  to  the  observation 
that  Germany  could  show  none  to  match  a  Newton,  a  Darwin,  a 
Pasteur,  etc.  In  his  own  departments  Professor  Sayce,  he  said, 
might  be  right,  but  'it  ought  to  be  impossible  to  think  of  New- 
ton without  thinking  of  Kepler ;  or  of  Pasteur  without  thinking 
of  Koch.'  Then  came  Sir  E.  Ray  Lankester  to  Professor  Sayce's 
support.  He  would  not  attempt  to  controveit  Professor  Turner 
in  his  own  field  of  astronomy,  but  must  point  out  his  unfortu- 
nate mistake — 'explained  no  doubt  by  the  fact  that  he  is  not  a 
biologist'— in  naming  Koch  in  the  same  breath  with  Pasteur. 
He  knew  both  of  them  personally,  and  'the  only  way  in  which 
one  can  think  of  Koch  in  relation  to  Pasteur  is  in  recalling  the 
Prussian  insolence  and  discourtesy  with  which  Koch  assailed 
the  great  Frenchman.'  For  the  rest  Koch  was  an  industrious 
and  moderately  capable  investigator  with  many  zealous  and 
admiring  disciples;  'by  them- — in  the  usual  German  way — he 
was  advertised  and  celebrated  beyond  his  due  as  a  wonderful 
discoverer.'  Huxley,  he  adds,  used  frequently  to  comment  'upon 
the  exaggerated  nature  of  the  reputation  for  learning  and 
scientific  capacity  which  the  Germans  had  created  for  them- 
selves,' and  this  unjustified  renown  he  attributes  'to  the  irre- 
sponsible gush  of  young  men  who  have  benefited  by  the  numer- 
ous and  well-organized  laboratories  of  German  universities.' 

"The  medical  men  have  been  quite  as  industrious  as  any  of 
the  others  in  exposing  the  falsity  of  German  pretensions.  The 
opportunity  was  welcomed  especially  by  Dr.  Mercier,  the  noted 
psychiatrist,  who  for  years  has  protested  constantly  against 
what  he  calls  the  superstition  of  German  pre-eminence,  particu- 
larly in  his  own  field.  But  in  one  department  of  activity  he 
insists  that  they  surpass  all  other  nations.  'I  refer,'  he  ex- 
plains, 'to  their  genius  for  self-advertisement.  They  have  con- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  331 

trived  upon  a  very  slender  basis  of  achievement  to  impress 
themselves  upon  the  world  as  the  most  scientific  nation  on 
earth  ...  In  getting  themselves  accepted  at  their  own 
valuation  they  are  immeasurably  superior  to  every  known  ex- 
ample— even  to  Mr.  Bernard  Shaw  .  .  .  They  display  the 
same  adroitness  in  foisting  upon  a  gullible  world  their  scientific 
achievements  as  their  shoddy  commercial  wares,  and  the  two 
are  of  much  the  same  value — made  for  show  and  not  for  en- 
durance— in  short,  made  in  Germany.'  It  may  be  remarked 
that  few  who  have  taken  part  in  the  discussion  so  far  have 
failed  to  pay  a  frank  tribute  to  their  German  rivals  on  this 
score." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
What  of  Russia  in  This  War,  and  of  the  "Slav  Peril?" 

To  many  persons  in  this  country  the  relation  of  Eussia 
to  the  cause  of  the  Allies,  which  those  of  us  who  believe  in 
it  describe  as  the  cause  of  true  Democracy,  has  seemed 
anomalous.  The  German  talk  of  the  "Slav  Peril"  has  had 
.perhaps  more  weight  than  any  other  of  the  pro-German 
arguments. 

I  have  nowhere  seen  a  more  succinct  or  satisfactory  state- 
ment as  to  this  question  than  that  by  Mr.  James  Daven- 
port Whelpley,  here  subjoined:  (195) 

"  'The  Slav  menace  to  Europe5 — much  talk  is  heard  of  it  and 
much  is  written.  That  there  is  no  such  menace  has  been  demon- 
strated conclusively  in  the  last  five  months.  Such  a  united 
resistance  as  that  which  Western  Europe  would  present  need 
go  no  further  than  an  ultimatum,  for  the  East  would  be  helpless 
in  the  face  of  such  power  and  such  purpose  now,  and  as  surely 
for  several  generations  to  come.  With  double  her  present  popu- 
lation, Russian  armies  would  be  outnumbered  and  outclassed 
by  the  forces  of  the  Western  Allies. 

"To  have  a  Slav  menace  for  Europe  it  is  necessary  to  assume, 
first,  that  Russia  is  gazing  westward  with  longing  eyes  and  un- 
satisfied ambitions;  second,  that  her  strength  is  sufficient  to 
warrant  an  attempt  to  satisfy  such  longing  and  gratify  such 
ambition.  So  far  as  territory  to  the  westward  is  concerned, 
Russia  is  now  prepared  voluntarily  to  decrease  her  holdings 
in  that  direction  by  giving  independence  to  Poland.  There  are 
excellent  military  and  economic  as  well  as  political  reasons  for 
this  move.  It  was  to  have  come  about  had  this  war  never  taken 
place.  Plans  were  made  for  Polish  independence  several  years 
ago,  and  in  the  good  time  of  Russia-^which  is  always  a  long 
(332) 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  333 

time — it  would  have  come.     The  war  nurried  events  and  en- 
larged the  plan — that  is  the  only  change. 

"What  Russia  proposes  to  do  now  if  victorious  is  to  force 
Germany  and  Austria  to  add  their  quota  to  the  new  Poland 
and  grant  political  independence  to  the  whole  of  this  now 
divided  nation  instead  of  only  to  that  part  now  known  as  Rus- 
sian Poland.  By  doing  this  Russia  would  build  up  a  great 
buffer  state  between  herself  and  Western  Europe,  behind  which 
she  could,  without  hindrance,  carry  on  the  development  of  her 
own  vast  territory,  a  work  at  which  a  good  beginning  has  al- 
ready been  made. 

"There  is  only  one  direction  in  which  Russia  has  ambition  to 
add  to  the  extent  of  her  empire  at  the  present  time,  and  that  is 
toward  the  Dardanelles.  That  this  passage  from  the  Black  Sea 
to  the  great  waters  of  all  the  world  is  not  hers  now  is  the 
sorrow  and  exasperation  of  her  people  and  the  wonder  of  other 
nations.  Heretofore  England  has  stood  in  her  way,  but  now, 
with  as  good  grace  as  may  be  under  the  circumstances,  British 
opposition  to  such  a  move  on  the  part  of  Russia  will  be  with- 
drawn, for  it  is  the  one  accepted  fact  concerning  any  future  divi- 
sion of  spoils  in  case  the  Allies  are  victorious,  that  Russia  will 
come  into  her  own  in  Constantinople. 

"A  glance  at  the  map  reveals  the  justice  of  her  claim  and  the 
economic  necessity  of  such  territorial  acquisition.  The  vast 
Russian  Empire  now  has  only  one  outlet  to  deep  water  not  ice- 
bound in  the  winter  months,  and  that  is  through  the  Black  Sea  ; 
but  even  here,  before  the  trade  routes  of  the  high  seas  are 
reached,  her  ships  must  pass  under  the  guns  of  alien  forts.  The 
Black  Sea  is  in  reality  only  a  Russian  harbor,  with  its  entrance 
commanded  by  those  opposed  to  the  expansion  of  Russian  trade. 
The  stake  of  the  Dardanelles  was  in  itself  sufficient  to  determine 
the  lines  of  her  alliances  and  tempt  her  to  put  her  fortune  to 
the  test  of  war. 

"There  would  be  no  violence  done  to  the  people  of  the  Straits 
were  Russia  to  become  their  ruler,  for  they  could  have  no  worse 
or  more  corrupt  government  than  is  now  their  portion,  and  the 
new  Lord  of  the  Manor  would  be  only  adding  a  few  more  thou- 
sand believers  in  the  Koran  to  the  millions  already  under  his 
authority.  There  would  be  no  violence  done  to  race  or  religion. 
If  there  is  a  country  in  the  world  which  has  an  excuse  for 
waging  a  war  for  new  territory,  it  is  Russia,  for  the  Straits  of 


334  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

the  Dardanelles  fall  naturally  and  justifiably  within  the  scope 
of  Russian  development. 

"If  unsuccessful  in  this  war,  Russia  will  retreat  within  her- 
self, vanquished  but  unconquered,  as  she  has  done  before,  and 
will  bide  her  time,  which  is  a  longer  time  than  any  other  nation 
can  bide  or  endure,  and  then  the  sons  of  those  who  are  fighting 
to-day  will  seek  the  gates  to  the  open  waters,  to  hold  them  for 
their  own  for  all  time,  for  in  the  end  the  entrance  to  the  Black 
Sea  will  inevitably  fall  into  Russian  hands. 

"This  great  war  is  only  an  incident  in  the  life  of  this  mys- 
tical, slumberous  and  altogether  remarkable  nation.  With 
others  it  may  mean  the  end  of  leadership;  not  so  with  Russia, 
for  she  has  a  destiny  to  work  out  within  the  borders  of  an 
empire  already  greater  than  the  world  has  ever  seen — one  which 
will  absorb  completely  the  energies  of  her  peoples  for  many 
generations  to  come.  j 

"No,  there  is  no  Slav  menace  to  Western  Europe;  first,  be- 
cause there  is  no  desire  to  menace;  second,  because  if  there 
were,  a  human  dam  could  be  built  across  the  face  of  central 
Europe  which  would  turn  back  even  the  flood  of  Russia's  count- 
less armies." 

As  to  the  share  of  Kussia  in  the  war  itself,  in  regard  to 
which  I  have  heard  much  misgiving  expressed  by  Ameri- 
cans with  the  strongest  possible  sympathy  for  the  Allies, 
I  prefer  to  accept  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Stanley  Washburn. 
(196) 

"What  I  have  seen  in  Poland  has  been  a  revelation  to  me 
of  the  armies  of  New  Russia.  As  regards  the  organization  and 
efficiency  which  we  who  were  in  Manchuria  ten  years  ago  came 
to  know,  there  is  about  as  much  difference  between  the  pres- 
ent military  machine  that  is  steadily  and  surely  driving  against 
Germany  and  that  which  first  crumpled  up  on  the  Yalu  before 
the  assaults  of  the  Imperial  Guards  of  far-off  Nippon  as  was 
the  difference  between  the  raw  recruits  that  stampeded  at  the 
Battle  of  Bull  Run  in  1861  and  the  veterans  that  received  the 
surrender  of  Lee  at  Appomattox  four  years  later. 

"Until  I  went  to  Poland  I  had  not  during  this  war  been 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  335 

actually  in  the  life  of  the  army  itself;  of  the  efficiency  of  the 
German  army,  measured  by  the  terrific  blows  that  it  had  been 
striking,  we  all  knew.  Of  the  Russians  we  know  little,  save 
of  their  Galician  campaign.  But  now  at  last  from  the  first 
day  we  entered  the  sphere  of  active  and  immediate  operations 
we  had  the  chance  of  forming  an  opinion  as  to  the  soldiers  of 
the  Czar — an  opinion  which  in  two  days  became  a  conviction, 
and  that  was  that  this  army  had  been  completely  reorganized 
in  ten  years  and  that  it  was  under  full  steam  with  a  momen- 
tum and  efficiency  which  was  almost  incredible  to  those  that 
had  seen  it  ten  years  ago  on  the  dismal  plains  of  Manchuria. 

"For  weeks  there  have  been  suggestions  in  the  foreign  press 
that  Russia  has  been  moving  slowly,  but  that  her  slowness  was 
the  preparation  for  sureness  is  the  answer  which  one  reads  on 
the  highways  and  byways  of  Poland  to-day.  . 

"There  is  no  question  about  the  Russians  to-day.  When  I 
first  came  to  Russia  I  wrote  a  story  from  Petrograd  in  which 
I  mentioned  the  new.  spirit  of  Russia  and  the  willingness  with 
which  the  troops  were  going  to  the  war.  After  having  been 
at  the  front  and  seen  hundreds  and  thousands  of  the  same  sol- 
diers on  the  roads,  in  the  trenches,  and  in  the  hospitals  I  am 
of  the  opinion  that  what  I  then  wrote  is  absolutely  true.  None 
of  these  pathetic  units  in  the  great  game  wanted  the  war,  and 
I  suppose  every  one  of  them  prays  for  its  conclusion,  but  almost 
without  exception  they  take  it  philosophically  and  as  a  matter 
of  course.  Their  hardships  and  their  losses,  their  privations 
and  their  wounds,  all  are  accepted  as  inevitable.  The  absolute 
hopelessness  which  one  saw  on  their  faces  in  Manchuria  is  not 
seen  in  these  days.  The  keynote  of  their  appearance  wherever 
I  have  seen  them  in  this  war  is  a  good-natured  cheerfulness 
and  readiness  to  accept  the  necessary  in  a  cause  the  general 
nature  of  which  most  of  them  understand.  . 

"The  soldiers  themselves  go  on  from  battlefield  to  battlefield, 
from  one  scene  of  carnage  to  another.  They  see  their  regiments 
dwindle  to  nothing,  their  officers  decimated,  three-fourths  of 
their  comrades  dead  or  wounded,  and  yet  each  night  they  gather 
about  their  bivouacs  apparently  undisturbed  by  it  all.  One 
sees  them  on  the  road  the  day  after  one  of  these  desperate  fights 
marching  cheerfully  along,  singing  songs  and  laughing  and 
joking  with  one  another.  This  is  morale  and  it  is  of  the  stuff 
that  victories  are  made.  And  of  such  is  the  fiber  of  the  Russian 


336  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

soldier,  scattered  over  these  hundreds  of  miles  of  front  to-day. 
He  exists  in  millions  much  as  I  have  described  him  above.  He 
has  abiding  faith  in  his  companions,  in  his  officers,  and  in  his 
cause.  I  think  myself  that  sooner  or  later  he  will  win.  Time 
alone  can  say  when  his  victory  will  come." 

As  this  book  goes  to  press  the  fall  of  Przemysl,  the  slow 
but  steady  approach  of  the  Allied  fleets  to  Constantinople, 
the  renewed  repulses  of  the  Germans  in  East  Prussia,  the 
obstinate,  unrelenting  Eussian  campaign  in  the  Carpath- 
ians, all  seem  to  give  point  and  significance  to  the  articles 
I  have  quoted. 

It  does  look  as  if  a  "new  Bussia"  were  fighting  in  this 
war  and  as  if  a  Bull  Bun  might  again  be  followed  by  an 
Appomattox.  Certainly  Eussia  has  now  made  the  Eastern 
winter  campaign  of  the  Germans  a  failure.  The  "Slav 
Peril"  must  seem  very  real  and  very  threatening  to  them, 
but  I  do  not  think  that  the  rest  of  the  world  has  any  reason 
to  be  disturbed  about  it. 


CHAPTEE  XIV. 
What  Are  the  Duties  of  America  at  this  Time? 

It  seems  to  me  a  very  narrow  and  indeed  a  somewhat 
discreditable  view  of  the  duty  of  America  at  this  time, 
which  would  confine  us  to  strict  "neutrality"  in  both  word 
and  deed.  The  former  is,  of  course,  practically  impossible. 
The  habit  of  saying  what  we  think  is  too  ingrained  to  be 
abandoned  by  reason  of  a  Presidential  or  any  other  decree 
or  proclamation.  And  what  many  Americans  think  is  that 
we  have  ourselves  been  offended,  injured,  flouted  by  Ger- 
many's actions,  beginning  with  the  violation  of  the  Belgian 
neutrality. 

There  is  in  existence  a  document  to  which  the  United 
States  of  America  is  one  of  the  signatories.  Another  signer 
is  the  German  Emperor.  This  document  embodies  the  re- 
sults of  The  Hague  Conferences  of  1899  and  1907.  Mr. 
James  F.  Muirhead,  of  London  (197),  has  discussed  in  a 
most  interesting  manner  the  situation  arising  from  the 
existence  of  this  paper.  One  of  its  sections,  (Convention 
Concerning  the  Laws  and  Customs  of  War  on  Land)  con- 
sists of  a  recitation  of  the  practices  which  the  signers 
solemnly  undertake  to  abstain  from  in  the  prosecution  of  a 
war.  Among  the  provisions  in  this  code  are  the  following : 

Undefended  towns  shall  not  be  bombarded,  (Article  25; 
also  Article  1  of  Naval  Code). 

Pillage  is  expressly  prohibited,  (Articles  28  and  47). 

Illegal  contributions  must  not  be  levied,  (Articles  49 
and  52). 

22  (337) 


338  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

Militia  and  volunteer  corps  enjoy  the  rights  of  belliger- 
ents, (Article  1). 

The  seizure  of  funds  belonging  to  private  persons  or  local 
authorities  is  prohibited,  (Articles  46,  53  and  56). 

Collective  penalties  for  individual  acts  are  forbidden, 
(Article  50). 

Every  effort  must  be  made  to  spare  buildings  dedicated 
to  public  worship,  art,  science  or  charitable  purposes, 
(Article  56). 

The  terrorization  of  a  country  by  outrages  on  its  civilian 
population  is  forbidden,  (Article  46). 

It  is  forbidden  to  make  improper  use  of  a  flag  of  truce, 
of  the  national  flag,  of  the  military  insignia  and  uniform 
•of  the  enemy,  or  of  the  distinctive  signs  of  the  Geneva  Con- 
vention, (Article  23) ;  and  it  is  forbidden  to  kill  or  muti- 
late the  wounded,  or  to  kill  and  wound  by  treachery, 
(Articled). 

The  weight  of  evidence  that  Germany  has  flagrantly 
violated  most  of  these  regulations  is  overwhelming,  even  if 
we  omit  those  in  the  last  paragraph  as  difficult  to  prove 
and  peculiarly  liable  to  exaggeration.  It  is  not,  however, 
necessary  to  omit  them,  in  view  of  the  American  and  Ger- 
man evidence  now  before  the  world.  (See  Chapter  IV.) 

Mr.  Muirhead  continues: 

"The  question,  then,  seems  to  arise  obviously  and  inevitably: 
What  is  the  position  in  these  circumstances  of  the  other  signa- 
tories to  the  code? 

"The  United  States  of  America  was  not  one  of  the  guarantors 
of  the  neutrality  of  Belgium.  Hence,  whatever  may  have  been 
the  feelings  of  its  citizens,  it  was  not,  as  a  nation  or  govern- 
ment, legally  called  on  to  interfere.  True,  the  action  of  Ger- 
many was  a  direct  attack  on  the  principles  of  liberty  and 
independent  nationality,  of  which  the  United  States  of  America 
is  rightly  considered  as  one  of  the  greatest  protagonists.  But  it 
may  be  granted  that  civilization  has  not  yet  progressed  so  far 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  339 

that  intervention  on  a  purely  ideal  ground  can  be  held  to  be 
a  matter  of  practical  politics — even  for  a  country  with  90,000,- 
000  inhabitants,  and  wealth  beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice. 

"But  unless  the  'scrap  of  paper'  theory  is  to  be  applied  indis- 
criminately to  all  contracts  and  treaties  between  nations,  what 
is  the  exact  meaning  of  the  signatures  of  other  Powers,  includ- 
ing the  United  States,  to  the  decisions  of  The  Hague  conference  ? 
Do  they  mean  only  a  promise  that  the  signatory  will  itself 
observe  those  decisions?  Or  do  they  go  further,  and  involve 
the  obligation  that  each  signatory  State  shall,  so  far  as  lies 
in  its  power,  enforce  the  observance  on  any  signatory  that  vio- 
lates them?  It  cannot  be  maintained  that  such  an  obligation 
goes  so  far  as  to  involve  undertaking  war  for  the  purpose  of 
enforcing  observance,  but  surely  it  involves  some  effort  to 
procure  it.  Can  a  great  nation  afford  to  put  its  name  to  a 
document  and  then  stand  by  in  icy  neutrality  while  that  docu- 
ment is  being  torn  to  shreds  by  another  of  the  high  contracting 
parties?  Is  the  conduct  of  Germany  ;n  this  regard  really  as 
much  a  matter  of  indifference  to  the  United  States  of  America 
as  to  China  or  Abyssinia?  It  is  obvious  that  the  signature  pf 
Germany  is  worthless,  and  that  the  signature  of  Great  Britain 
is  being  honored.  But  has,  or  has  not,  the  value  of  that  of  the 
United  States  of  America  been  somewhat  impaired?  Germany's 
word  was  given  to  America  as  much  as  to  England.  Can  Amer- 
ica, then,  consonantly  with  its  dignity  and  honor,  allow  Ger- 
many to  snap  its  fingers  at  her,  and  say,  'Well,  what  are  you 
going  to  do  about  it  V  " 

Mr.  Muirhead  asks  if  the  attitude  of  the  United  States 
of  America  should  be,  or  must  be,  that  of  a  neutral,  equally 
friendly  to  both  parties  and  waiting  quietly  for  the  chance 
to  insinuate  proposals  of  peace;  or  if  the  necessity  of  the 
case  is  not  something  wider  and  deeper  than  can  be  met  by 
an  ordinary  peace  based  on  comparatively  unimportant 
mutual  concessions?  Is  it  not,  he  says,  inevitably  a  fight 
to  a  finish,  and  is  not  the  United  States  of  America  enor- 
mously interested  in  having  that  "finish"  in  one  way  only? 

He  expresses    the    hope   that   the  Allies   will  need    no 


340  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

material  assistance  from  the  United  States  of  America  in 
achieving  their  ends,  but  adds : 

"Those  of  us,  however,  who  love  America  must  pray  that  she 
will  definitely  declare  herself  on  the  side  of  popular  liberty,  if 
for  nothing  else  than  for  the  preservation  of  the  full  measure 
of  our  love  and  admiration." 

America  was  quick  to  see  which  was  the  side  of  right 
and  justice  in  the  war,  but  has  been  slow  to  awaken  (indeed 
is  not  yet  fully  awakened)  to  its  tragic  possibilities. 

"Questions  like  the  current  one,  whether  the  Prussian  Idea 
is  the  Only  Hope  and  the  Kaiser  the  Preferred  Instrument  of 
the  Almighty,  are,  of  course,  very  interesting  indeed  to  discuss, 
but  even  to  the  Prussians  themselves  the  discussion  will  seem 
too  dear  if  the  price  of  it  is  extermination. 

"We  do  not  realize  this  war,  we  Americans.  The  people  who 
realize  it  most,  as  yet,  are  the  Belgians,  but  all  the  countries 
actively  concerned  in  it  will  realize  in  due  time  what  it  means 
when  the  resources  of  a  mechanical  civilization  are  concen- 
trated on  the  destruction  of  human  life.  As  for  Belgium,  she 
is  like  a  country  crucified  for  the  saving  of  the  nations.  Of 
all  the  countries  involved  in  the  war,  she  was  the  most  innocent, 
the  best  justified,  the  most  gallant.  Gashed  with  innumerable 
wounds,  her  poor  body  is  a  witness,  still  living,  against  the 
aggressions  of  Prussia,  and  against  our  modern  warfare  by 
machinery."  (198) 

In  the  early  days  of  the  war  I  was  travelling  in  Alaska 
and  in  our  Pacific  northwest  and  Canada.  I  talked  with 
many  Americans  whom  I  met  on  trains  or  boats  or  at  hotels. 
I  did  not  find  among  them  a  single  pro-German.  But  when 
I  expressed  the  view,  which  I  then  absolutely  held,  that  we 
— the  United  States — should  help  to  make  the  issue  of  the 
war  certain  by  promptly  offering  the  Allies  every  assistance 
in  our  power,  I  found  no  one  to  agree  with  me. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  341 

I  have  noticed  since  then  a  steadily  increasing  and 
strengthening  trend  of  public  opinion  in  that  direction. 
Now,  when  I  express  the  same  sentiments,  nearly  every 
second  person  acquiesces.  Many  Americans  have  publicly 
put  themselves  on  record  as  favoring  some  form  of  inter- 
vention on  behalf  of  the  Allies.  Some  would  be  content 
with  a  protest  against  the  violation  of  the  Hague  conven- 
tion and  an  expression  of  opinion  that  would  offiaialty 
declare  to  the  world,  what  the  world  already  knows,  the 
overwhelming  sympathy  of  this  country  for  the  cause  and 
the  principles  for  which  the  Allies  are  fighting. 

Others,  among  whom  I  am  to  be  counted,  are  in  favor  of 
prompt  recognition  of  the  fact  that  for  the  sake  of  human- 
ity and  of  civilization  we  cannot  afford  to  permit  Germany 
to  win,  and  that  the  surest  way  of  preventing  it  is  to  take 
sides  at  once.  It  seems  a  terrible  thing  to  advocate  war 
for  one's  own  country  when  war  might  be  avoided.  But 
it  is  more  terrible  to  think  of  the  indefinite  prolongation 
of  the  slaughter  now  going  on  and  of  the  experiences  now 
awaiting  not  only  the  combatants,  but  the  women  and 
children  and  babies  left  homeless  and  fatherless.  If  our 
intervention  brought  victory  to  the  cause  of  the  Allies 
a  month  earlier  than  it  would  otherwise  come,  it  would  be 
justified. 

I  am  at  one  with  Mr.  Fraley,  who,  in  the  article  I  have 
twice  quoted  from  (199),  said: 

"Why  not  then  take  a  hand  at  redefining,  right  now,  whilst 
our  action  will  be  effective ;  saying  to  the  War  Lord :  *  You  have 
elected  to  ply  your  trade  on  these  lines,  but  the  business  is  at 
your  peril.  If  you  should  be  so  unlucky  as  to  shed  American 
blood  upon  neutral  ground  or  even  in  an  enemy's  territory, 
at  a  point  remote  from  battle  and  without  due  warning;  or 
if  an  American  should  be  harmed,  in  person  or  property,  by  a 
mine  of  yours  upon  the  high  seas ;  we  shall  hold  it  to  be  an  act 
of  war.' 


342  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF:  THE  WAR 

"  ' Advise'  our  fellow-neutral,  Holland  ( whose  present  status 
is  Germany's  best  asset),  that  it  is  contrary  to  the  public  policy 
of  the  world  that  Germany  should  have  the  benefits  of  Dutch 
neutrality  for  the  entrance  of  supplies,  whilst  trampling  on  the 
obligations  of  neutrality  towards  her  next  door  neighbor.  Pro- 
hibit all  shipments  from  the  United  States  to  Holland  except 
upon  the  guarantee  of  the  Dutch  government  that  they  shall 
not  go  beyond  her  border.  Exert  all  our  influence  upon  the 
public  opinion  of  the  world  to  denounce  the  War  Lord  as  an 
enemy  of  the  human  race. 

"If  Germany  should  resent  this,  how  could  we  make  good? 

"Send  our  Atlantic  fleet  to  co-operate  with  the  Allies  in  clos- 
ing the  Baltic,  and  take  along,  as  supply  ships  and  colliers, 
every  German  vessel  now  in  our  ports.  We  shall  find  some  of 
them  loaded  already. 

"What  precedent  exists  for  such  a  notice  and  demand?  The 
mouth  of  the  War  Lord  is  closed  on  the  subject  of  precedents, 
but  if  we  must  have  a  formula  to  go  by,  wherein  would  our 
action  differ,  in  spirit,  from  that  which  we  have  already  done 
in  Cuba  and  in  Mexico? 

"We,  the  great  Neutral  Power  of  the  World,  who  desire  that 
all  neutrality  shall  be  alike  effective  and  respected,  find  the 
situation  intolerable.  We  know  that  the  one  hope  of  stopping 
wars,  is  to  supply  a  world  wide  sanction  for  the  support  of 
international  laws  and  morals." 

I  believe  that  to-day  this  expresses  the  view  of  a  large 
and  rapidly  increasing  number  of  Americans,  and  that 
before  long  the  majority  of  our  people  will  regard  it  as  the 
duty  of  the  President  to  protest  against  the  disregard  of 
treaties  and  the  violation  of  conventions,  and  to  make  such 
protest  so  emphatic  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  left  in  the 
minds  of  the  Kaiser  and  the  German  people  that  the  sym- 
pathies and,  if  necessary,  the  support  of  the  United  States 
are  pledged  to  the  cause  of  the  Allies. 

Since  it  was  written  the  piratical  threat  of  the  "war- 
zone/'  the  illegal  capture  and  destruction  of  an  American 
ship,  the  atrocities  and  barbarities  of  the  Grerman  cam- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  343 

paign  in  Belgium  have  added  to  Germany's  offenses  against 
civilization  in  general  and  against  America  in  particular. 
Dr.  Charles  Eliot,  President  Emeritus  of  Harvard,  in  an 
address  on  "America's  Duty  in  Eelation  to  the  European 
War"  is  quoted  as  saying:  (200) 

"With  Germany,  might  made  right.  She  made  a  violent 
attack  on  the  weaker,  because  it  was  the  shortest,  the  easiest 
way.  What  a  blow  this  was  to  our  idea  of  mercy,  to  our  con- 
ception of  the  progress  of  man  from  a  barbarian  to  a  civilized, 
fair,  merciful  being!  We  had  hoped  that  the  methods  of  war 
were  capable  of  amelioration,  but  this  war  has  blown  all  those 
hopes  to  the  winds. 

"All  our  hopes  were  shattered  by  Germany's  action.  All  our 
American  ideas  of  the  right  to  life,  liberty,  property,  happiness, 
were  nullified  by  this  nation,  which  is  led  by  a  ruler  who  has  an 
archaic  idea  of  his  powers  and  of  his  relation  to  the  world. 
Germany  has  shown  us  that  in  the  most  advanced  nation,  as 
far  as  science  is  concerned,  there  is  no  place  for  mercy,  no  place 
for  good  will  and  that  hatred  takes  the  place  of  good  motives. 

"We  must  bear  in  mind  the  deep  obligations  which  this 
nation  is  under  to  England  and  France,  so  deep  that  it  is  vain 
to  expect  us  to  be  in  our  hearts  neutral.  Can  we  think  of  giving 
no  aid  to  France  if  she  comes  to  the  end  of  her  resources;  to 
England  if  she  should  be  reduced  to  like  straits? 

"But  let  us  not  confuse  our  minds  by  failing  to  see  whither 
the  German  policy  tends.  Let  us  not  dream  of  abandoning  our 
faith  that  human  relations  shall  be  determined  by  considera- 
tions of  justice,  mercy,  love,  and  good  will.  We  must  help  the 
Allies  if  our  assistance  is  requested." 

To  quote  the  usually  pacific  Outlook  (201),  and  with 
most  cordial  approval: 

"To  a  nation  that  acknowledges  no  law  but  its  own  might, 
those  nations  that  have  a  sense  of  honor  and  regard  their  obliga- 
tions as  binding,  can  only  say:  'If  only  the  sword  will  induce 
you  to  keep  your  word,  we  shall  have  to  let  the  sword  do  its 


344  A  TEXT-BOOK  OP  THE  WAR 

work.  It  will  be  our  business  to  see  that  the  observance  of 
treaties  which  we  regard  as  a  matter  of  honor,  you  shall  find 
to  be  a  matter  of  self-interest.' " 

Professor  G.  B.  Adams,  of  Yale,  is  reported  (202)  to 
have  said  recently: 

"So  much  is  at  stake  for  civilization  in  this  war  that  Ger- 
many must  not  be  allowed  to  win  it,  even  if  it  becomes  neces- 
sary for  the  United  States  to  enter  the  conflict  on  the  side  of 
the  Allies.  .  .  .  Germany  represents  in  government  and 
institutions  an  obsolescent  system  away  from  which  the  world 
has  been  advancing  for  generations.  .  .  .  Germany  must 
be  defeated  in  this  war.  If  it  comes  to  the  point  when  it  is 
necessary  for  the  United  States  to  aid  the  Allies  to  the  end 
that  they  should  win,  then  I  hope  it  will  be  done.  She  is 
opposed  to  everything  for  which  we  stand,  and  our  turn  would 
be  next  if  Germany  were  successful." 

Mr.    Robert  Bacon,    ex-Ambassador  from    the    United 
States  to  France,  says :  (203) 

"Signs  are  not  wanting  that  the  people  of  this  country  are 
unwilling  to  submit  much  longer  to  the  injunction  laid  upon 
them  that  our  neutrality  should  impose  upon  us  silence  regard- 
ing aspects  of  the  European  war  with  which  we  have  a  vital 
concern.  There  are  many  men  who  consider  that  this  nation  is 
shirking  its  duty  by  maintaining  a  policy  which  may  be 
interpreted  as  giving  tacit  assent  to  acts  involving  us  morally 
and  much  more  intimately  than  has  yet  been  expressed.  These 
men  believe  that  we  have  a  high  responsibility  in  upholding  the 
treaties  which  were  signed  at  the  Second  Conference  at  The 
Hague  in  1907  and  ratified  by  the  United  States  and  the  nations 
now  at  war.  . 

"In  The  Hague  convention  referred  to  we  have  a  real  and 
intimate  concern.  That  convention  was  signed  by  the  delegates 
from  the  United  States  and  ratified  by  the  United  States  govern- 
ment, ,  and  Jt^as^igued .  ana  _ratified  by  Germany,  making  it 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  345 

a  treaty  between  Germany  and  the  United  States,  in  which  the 
other  ratifying  Powers  were  joined. 

"In  admittedly  violating  Articles  I  and  II  of  that  conven- 
tion Germany  broke  a  treaty  she  had  solemnly  made  and  entered 
into  with  the  United  States. 

"Are  we  to  suffer  a  nation  to  break  a  treaty  with  us,  on 
whatever  pretext,  without  entering,  at  least,  a  formal  protest? 
Will  anyone  contend  that  our  neutrality  imposes  silence  upon 
us  under  such  conditions?  Are  The  Hague  conventions  to 
become  'scraps  of  paper'  without  a  single  word  of  protest  from 
this  government?  If  the  treaties  which  we  made  at  The  Hague 
are  to  be  so  lightly  regarded,  then  why  not  all  our  other 
treaties  ?  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  our  solemn  duty  to  protest 
against  a  violation  of  pledges  formally  entered  into  between 
this  government  and  any  other  government,  and  we  assume 
a  heavy  moral  responsibility  when  we  remain  silent.  In  thia 
crisis,  particularly,  other  nations  look  to  us  and  never,  per- 
haps, has  our  example  had  greater  force." 

Professor  Henry  M.  Howe,  of  Columbia  University,  has 
expressed  (204)  as  follows  the  alternatives  open  to  the 
United  States: 

"Are  there  not  two  courses  now  open  to  us  which  may  direct 
the  course  of  human  affairs  for  centuries;  the  first  to  be  neutral, 
while  revictualling  and  rearming  Germany  as  far  as  is  possible 
through  Holland  and  Scandinavia,  and  thereby  increasing  the 
chance  of  her  reaching  a  position  in  which  she  can  later  conquer 
us  and  the  rest  of  the  planet,  and  meanwhile  force  us  to  become 
primarily  military  instead  of  industrial;  the  second  to  join 
the  Allies  and  prevent  Germany  reaching  that  position,  not  only 
directly  by  our  strength,  but  still  more  by  withholding  from 
her  those  supplies  of  food,  ammunition  and  gasolene  without 
which  she  must  yield? 

"Germany  having  now  disclosed  her  wish  to  rule  the  planet, 
does  she  not  know  that  this  war  will  decide  either  that  she 
shall  reach  a  position  in  which  she  can  carry  out  that  wish, 
or  that  the  rest  of  the  world,  recognizing  this  to  be  her  wish, 
will  combine  to  prevent  her  in  perpetuity  from  reaching  that 
position  ? 


346  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"And  is  not  this  knowledge  one  sufficient  reason  for  her 
anxiety  for  our  good  will,  lest  we  aid  the  Allies  to  prevent  her 
reaching  it? 

"If  we  are  to  have  a  world  alliance  for  restraining  military 
aggression,  should  not  that  alliance  be  formed  now  rather  than 
after  the  subjugation  of  the  Allies  shall  have  left  no  unsub- 
jugated  civilized  powers  collectively  strong  enough  to  restrain 
Germany?  The  world's  present  power  to  crush  the  aggressor 
suffices.  If  we  allow  this  war  to  go  against  the  Allies,  shall 
we  not  thereby  lose  perhaps  the  last  golden  opportunity? 

"If  our  danger  seems  remote,  is  not  that  because  we  have 
not  given  it  thought? 

"If  the  great  work  of  the  Allies  is  to  prevent  Germany 
becoming  irresistible,  is  not  this  as  necessary  to  our  preserva- 
tion as  to  theirs?  If  so,  do  not  honor  and  dignity  call  on  us 
to  assume  our  share  in  the  burden  of  this  prevention?" 

The  Hague  Conventions  of  1899  and  1907,  with  the 
annexed  regulations,  were  signed  by  the  direction  of  Col- 
onel Boosevelt,  then  President  of  the  United  States,  and 
expressed  the  practically  unanimous  sentiments  of  our  peo- 
ple. 

Colonel  Koosevelt  now  writes:  (205) 

"Most  emphatically  I  would  not  have  permitted  such  a  farce 
to  go  through  if  it  had  entered  my  head  that  this  government 
would  not  consider  itself  bound  to  do  all  it  could  to  see  that 
the  regulations  to  which  it  made  itself  a  party  were  actually 
observed  when  the  necessity  for  their  observance  arose.  .  .  . 
Of  the  present  neutral  powers  the  United  States  of  America  is 
the  most  disinterested  and  the  strongest,  and  should,  therefore, 
bear  the  main  burden  of  the  responsibility  in  this  matter. 
.  .  .  If  they  (The  Hague  Conventions)  meant  anything, -if 
the  United  States  had  a  serious  purpose,  a  serious  sense  of  its 
obligations  to  world  righteousness  when  it  entered  into  them 
then  its  plain  duty  (after  proof  of  their  violation  has  been 
obtained)  is  to  take  whatever  action  may  be  necessary  to  vindi- 
cate the  principles  of  international  law  set  forth  in  those  con- 
ventions." 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  347 

Professor  William  Gardner  Hale,  of  Chicago,  says  (206) 
that  as  the  second  Hague  Conference  dealt  with  neutral 
powers  everywhere  in  the  world,  and  as  the  agreement 
declared  their  territory  "inviolable,"  and  as  this  was  agreed 
to  by  forty-two  other  powers  (in  addition  to  Germany  and 
the  United  States),  Germany's  act  in  breaking  the  law  did 
not  concern  England,  France,  Belgium  and  herself  alone, 
it  concerned  us.  "It  was  not  merely  a  shameful  act  toward 
a  brave  but  weak  state,  it  was  an  offence  to  us." 

Professor  Hale  continues : 

"In  a  given  country  there  is  force  to  maintain  the  laws.  As 
between  countries,  there  has  been  no  means.  There  is,  in  the 
technical  phrase,  no  sanction.  It  is  absolutely  essential  that 
there  should  be  a  sanction.  There  never  can  be  any  except 
force.  That  cannot  be  the  force  of  the  combatants.  They  are 
already  engaged  with,  all  their  might  in  the  struggle.  The 
law  breaker  will  go  on  breaking.  If  he  wins  there  will  never 
even  be  any  punishment.  Our  President  has  said  that  these 
questions  will  be  taken  up  at  the  end  of  the  war  at  The  Hague. 
But  if  Germany  wins  there  will  never  be  any  conference  at  The 
Hague.  The  Hague  will  be  at  the  War  Office  in  Berlin,  and 
there  will  be  no  admission. 

"If  the  Allies  conquer  there  will  be  a  conference.  The  forty- 
four  powers  will  take  part.  But  even  so,  there  can  never  be 
any  security  against  further  law  breaking,  except  that  powers 
which  are  strangers  to  the  dispute  should,  the  moment  there 
is  sure  violation  of  the  laws  of  war,  throw  in  their  strength 
against  the  guilty  side.  It  will  have  to  be  some  powerful 
nation,  or  nations,  that  do  this.  We  are  such  a  nation.  Our 
fleet  is  the  third  in  the  world,  though  our  army  is  small.  Our 
resources,  if  brought  into  operation,  are  great.  We  are  also 
a  determined  people. 

"This  is  no  small  quarrel.  The  fate  of  the  world  hangs  upon 
it.  That  which  we  ought  some  day  to  do  we  should  do  now; 
should  have  done  already.  Technical  reasons,  as  well  as  moral 
reasons,  we  have  in  abundance.  Solemn  treaties  made  'between 
the  United  States  and  other  powers/  including  Germany,  have 


348  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

been  broken  by  her.  The  breaking  of  a  treaty  is  always  a  suffi- 
cient reason  for  a  declaration  of  war  if  the  offended  party 
desires.  We  had  a  sufficient  reason  on  the  day  on  which  the 
text  of  the  German  ultimatum  to  Belgium  was  published,  even 
if  we  were  doubtful  about  the  ridiculous  reason  given.  Ger- 
many's announcement  that,  if  Belgium  resisted  the  violation  of 
her  territory,  Germany  would  regard  her  resistance  as  a  hostile 
act,  and  treat  the  relations  of  the  two  countries  thereafter 
according  to  the  arbitrament  of  war,  was  enough.  When 
precious  historical  monuments,  which  are  in  a  very  true  sense 
the  property  of  all  mankind,  began  to  be  destroyed  or  to  be 
gravely  injured  there  was  again  enough.  When  an  unfortified 
and  undefended  town  was  three  times  bombarded  there  was 
again  enough.  When  the  peaceful  vessels  of  neutrals,  as  well 
as  vessels  of  war,  began  to  be  blown  up  by  floating  mines  there 
was  once  more  enough.  And,  even  if  we  did  not  make  war,  it 
was  our  duty  at  the  very  least  to  address  a  temperate  protest 
to  Germany.  We  did  not  protest.  The  love  of  fair  play  is 
inherent  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  as  well  as  in  most  others. 
Even  a  crowd  at  a  prizefight  or  a  game  will  not  tolerate 
repeated  and  deliberate  foul  play  and  wait  to  the  end  in  the 
hope  of  adjudication.  It  will  promptly  drag  the  offending  party 
out  of  the  ring.  But  we  do  nothing. 

"We  are  not  a  military  nation  and  are  not  prepared.  But 
our  navy  could  at  once  have  patrolled  the  seas  and  given  secur- 
ity in  the  Atlantic.  We  could  have  kept  the  communications 
between  France  and  England  open.  We  could  have  guarded  the 
English  harbors.  We  could  have  set  the  English  fleet  entirely 
free  to  do  its  most  important  work,  if  it  is  in  any  way  possible 
to  do  it — namely,  to  destroy  the  German  navy.  That  once  gone, 
Germany  could  never  have  built  another  until  after  peace 
was  declared.  She  would  have  been  heavily  crippled.  A  decla- 
ration of  war  from  us  would  also  have  at  once  shut  off  all 
American  food  from  reaching  Germany  by  any  channel.  We 
could  also  have  sent  at  once  a  small  army  to  the  field.  There 
was  a  time  when  a  small  additional  force  would  have  made  a 
difference.  We  could  have  asked  for  volunteers.  Hundreds  of 
thousands  would  have  offered  themselves.  We  were  not  pre- 
pared, but  Germany  would  have  known  that  we  were  preparing, 
She  would  have  seen  that  her  cause  was  hopeless." 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  349 

These  quotations,  representing  the  views  of  an  ex-Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  an  ex-President  of  Harvard,  an 
ex-Ambassador,  a  Yale  professor,  a  Chicago  professor,  a 
Columbia  professor  and  a  Philadelphia  lawyer,  must  serve 
to  indicate  the  reasons  for  my  belief  that  American  public 
opinion  now  tends  to  favor  some  form  of  intervention,  not 
from  quarrelsomeness,  certainly  not  for  selfish  motives  or 
from  desire  for  aggrandizement,  but  chiefly  from  the  wish 
to  have  our  country  discharge  a  great  international  duty, 
thrust  upon  us  by  the  irresistible  force  of  circumstances,  a 
duty,  the  proper  discharge  of  which  would  make  humanity 
our  debtor  for  ages  to  come. 

[See  also,  in  reply  to  this  question,  Chapter  XVIIL] 


CHAPTEK  XV. 
What  Are  the  Interests  of  America  at  This  Time? 

I  think  many  Americans  must  have  blushed  when  they 
read  Mr.  Champ  Clark's  speech  early  in  September  and 
saw  that  he  had  said  that  we  wanted  to  "encourage  peace- 
making in  the  old  world  partly  out  of  motives  of  humanity, 
but  largely  because  we  do  not  want  to  be  injured."  He  cer- 
tainly did  not  speak  for  the  American  people  in  placing 
that  motive  above  all  others. 

Yet  it  is  right  that  we  should  ask :  What  may  we  expect 
if  Germany  is  victorious  in  this  war? 

We  know  the  principles  for  which  she  stands.  We  know 
her  disregard  for  obligations,  spoken  or  written.  We  know 
her  intention  to  gain  "World  Power"  at  any  cost.  Have 
we  any  reason  to  think  that  she  would  respect  us,  our 
wishes,  our  persons,  our  property? 

Dr.  Dernburg,  the  ex-Colonial  Secretary,  was  some  time 
ago,  understood  to  have  declared  that  Germany  had 
announced  its  recognition  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  (207) 
The  Monroe  Doctrine,  as  every  American  knows,  dates 
back  to  1823,  when  "certain  European  Powers  showed 
signs  of  wishing  to  help  Spain  recover  her  lost  American 
colonies."  President  Monroe  said :  "We  owe  it  therefore  to 
candor  ....  to  declare  that  we  consider  any 
attempt  on  their  part  to  extend  their  system  to  any  portion 
of  this  hemisphere  as  dangerous  to  our  peace  and  safety." 
That  is  the  important  part  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  For- 
tunately the  republics  of  South  America  have  attained  such 
size  and  strength  that  the  further  statement  that  we  could 

(350) 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  351 

not  permit  anyone  to  "oppress  them"  or  to  "control  their 
destiny"  might  now  well  be  modified  to  read  that  we  would 
gladly  aid  them,  if  they  needed  aid,  in  resisting  any  such 
attempt. 

Dr.  Dernburg's  statement  was  intended  to  be  under- 
stood as  an  assurance  that  Germany  did  not  intend  to 
establish-  colonies  in  this  hemisphere. 

A  little  later  our  State  Department  issued  an  announce- 
ment to  the  effect  that  the  German  Ambassador,  Count  von 
Bernstorff,  had  on  September  3,  1914,  in  a  note  to  the 
department  "stated  that  he  was  instructed  by  his  Govern- 
ment to  deny  most  emphatically  the  rumors  to  the  effects 
that  Germany  intends,  in  case  she  comes  out  victorious  in 
the  present  war,  to  seek  expansion  in  South  America." 

"The  sweeping  statement  of  Dr.  Dernburg  Is  thus  reduced 
to  an  official  expression  concerning  Germany's  intention  with 
regard  to  South  America.  Thus  it  is  seen  that  there  was  no 
pledge  offered,  but  merely  an  expression  of  intention.  And 
Americans  must  remember  that  intentions  change.  In  the 
second  place  it  related,  not  to  the  whole  of  the  Western  Hemi- 
sphere, but  merely  to  South  America.  What  Germany's  inten- 
tions are  with  regard  to  North  America,  including  Canada  and 
the  West  Indies,  was  left  to  American  imagination. 

"But  not  for  long.  One  day  later  there  was  published  a 
further  statement  by  Dr.  Dernburg,  and  a  statement  by  the 
German  Ambassador,  Count  von  Bernstorff."  (208) 

The  latter  said  that  a  German  invasion  of  Canada  for  a 
temporary  foothold  on  this  continent  would  not  violate  the 
Monroe  Doctrine,  and  Dr.  Dernburg  said  that  by  sending 
Canadian  troops  to  the  war,  "Canada  had  placed  herself 
beyond  the  pale  of  American  protection." 

He  took  pains  to  add  that  Germany  would,  however, 
extend  her  respect  for  South  American  territory  to  that  of 
our  neighbor  to  the  north. 


352  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

But  can  Americans  afford  to  believe  them  ?  The  papers 
are  already  asking  whether  "in  the  light  cast  upon  German 
international  policy  by  the  Ems  dispatch — forged  or  doc- 
tored, as  one  may  choose  to  call  it — by  Bismarck  to  bring 
on  the  Franco-German  war  of  1870-71,  and  by  the  "scrap 
of  paper"  incident  in  this  war,  we  can  afford  to  adopt  any 
policy  in  relation  to  Germany  but  that  of  extreme  watchful 
waiting  and  preparedness  for  whatever  events  may  happen 
in  the  near  future." 

"Certainly  we  have  no  antipathy  to  Germans;  no  racial  dis- 
trust of  them.  But  we  do  distrust  the  leading  that  Germany 
has  had  since  1870.  We  do  consider  that  her  people  have  been 
trained  to  follow  a  false  ideal.  We  do  consider  that  the  policy 
of  Bismarck  corrupted  her  moral  sense.  A  great  man  was 
Bismarck  and  a  great  deal  good,  but  he  lied  without  scruple, 
and  he  took  for  Germany  without  scruple  or  regard  for  justice 
anything  that  he  thought  would  do  Germany  good.  When  he 
took  Alsace  and  Lorraine  he  overdid  the  job  and  committed  his 
unfortunate  country  to  a  hopless  debauch  of  militarism.  Ger- 
many as  we  see  it  now  is  not  the  Germany  of  Goethe  or  Schiller, 
of  the  democrats  of  1848;  it  is  the  Germany  of  Bismarck,  and  of 
intense  commercialism,  and  of  success  at  any  price.  When 
Bismarck  told  in  his  memoirs  how  he  changed  the  wording  of 
the  French  ambassador's  letter  and  brought  on  the  war  in  1870, 
it  was  notice  given  to  mankind  that  in-  diplomatic  concerns  the 
word  of  Germany  may  not  be  trusted.  When  the  German  troops 
crossed  the  Belgian  frontier  it  confirmed  the  existing  impres- 
sion that  promises  of  the  German  Government  are  only  good 
so  long  as  enforceable  by  the  promisee."  (209) 

Powys  (210)  deals  with  the  subject  philosophically: 

"Human  nature  is  pushed  forward  by  the  very  profoundest 
law  of  its  existence  towards  light  and  air  and  liberty  and  hap- 
piness and  leisure  and  culture.  It  is  also  pushed  forward  by 
a  profound  law  of  its  existence  towards  competition  and  strug- 
gle and  rivalry.  But  there  is  no  earthly  reason  why  these  two 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  TEE  WAR  353 

laws  should  not  at  least  be  so  reconciled  that  the  abuse  of 
extreme  poverty  and  the  abuse  of  war  should  not  be  totally 
abolished.  To  lay  it  down  as  an  austere,  scientific  dogma,  aa 
some  writers  do,  that  we  must  always  have  poverty  and  always 
have  war,  is  not  to  have  sufficient  trust  in  the  miraculous  trans- 
formative power  of  life.  Life  has  produced  the  human  race 
from  among  the  animals.  Why  should  it  not  be  able,  with 
man's  intelligent  assistance,  to  clear  out  of  the  way  such  gro- 
tesque anomalies  as  extreme  poverty  and  the  slaughter  of 
war? 

"This  is  not  idealistic  or  fantastic  dreaming.  It  is  the  voice 
of  simple  common  sense.  And  it  is  a  legitimate  hope  for  the 
future.  Why  should  the  human  intellect  which  has  been  able, 
as  this  war  proves,  to  devise  such  splendid  engines  of  destruc- 
tion as  the  Krupp  guns  and  the  Zeppelin  airships  and  the  sub- 
marines and  the  mines,  not  be  able  to  devise  some  scientific  plan 
by  which  extreme  poverty  and  military  slaughter  should  be 
brought  to  a  sudden  end?  Whatever  other  effect  this  amazing 
war  has,  it  will  have  the  effect,  we  may  hope — if  the  Allies  win 
— of  turning  the  world's  attention  to  both  these  obvious  neces- 
sities. 

"It  is  for  this  reason,  as  much  as  anything,  that  neutral 
Americans,  and  others,  are  bound  to  hope  for  the  victory  of  the 
Allies.  The  victory  of  the'  Germans  would  mean — who  can 
doubt  it? — an  incredible  encouragement  to  the  policy  of  anna' 
ments.  It  would  also  mean — who  can  doubt  that,  either? — an 
immense  strengthening  of  the  fetters  of  caste  and  aristocracy." 

I  agree  with  the  London  Spectator:  (211) 

"Strange  as  it  will  sound  to  most  American  ears     . 
it  is  none  the  less  true  that  at  this  moment  what  stands  between 
the  Monroe  Doctrine  and  its  complete  destruction  are  our  ships 
in  the  North  Sea  and  the  battle-weary,  mud-stained  men  in 
the  British  and  French  trenches  on  the  Aisne." 

"It  seems  ignoble,  and  it  is,,  to  cling  over  anxiously  to 
life  when  daily  so  many  thousands  before  our  eyes  give  it 
up.  This  is  our  battle,,  too,,  that  is  being  fought  in  Europe; 

23 


354  A  TEXT-BOOK  OR  THE  WAE 

our  destiny  as  well  as  their  own  that  Belgians,,  British, 
French,,  Germans,  and  all  the  rest  are  struggling  and  dying 
over.  This  is  a  conflict  of  fundamental  ideas.  If  the  Ger- 
man idea  wins,  its  next  great  clash  seems  likely  to  be  with 
the  idea  that  underlies  such  civilization  as  we  have  in  these 
States."  (212) 

We  can  get  some  information  as  to  the  probabilities  in 
this  direction  from  other  sources.  We  have  seen  how 
accurately  Bernhardi  and  Treitschke  forecast  the  immed- 
iate future  in  their  writings.  There  were  other  prophets  in 
their  country.  The  late  Mr.  W.  T.  Arnold,  grandson  of 
Arnold  of  Eugby,  in  a  summary  of  the  "German  Profes- 
sional Campaign,"  quotes  as  follows  from  Dr.  W.  Wintzer's 
book,  "Die  Deutschen  in  Tropischen  Amerika": 

"The  moral  core  of  the  Monroe  doctrine  vanished  on  the  day 
when  the  document  concerning  the  annexation  of  the  Philip- 
pines was  signed  by  McKinley."  He  (Wintzer)  claims  'the 
right  to  confront  this  Greater-American  doctrine  with  a  Greater- 
German  one';  and  adds:  'Equality  of  treatment  with  the 
United  States  in  South  America — that  is  the  theory  which  we 
both  on  principle  and  as  occasion  serves,  must  oppose  to  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  and  which,  too,  should  the  moment  come,  we 
must  defend  by  force.'  .  .  .  The  American  order  of  'Hands- 
Off ! '  in  South  America  must  be  answered  in  the  negative. 

"Two  of  the  Pan-German  prophets  of  the  future,  'Germania 
TriumpJums9  and  Dr.  Eisenhart,  represent  Germany  as  fighting 
against  both  Britain  and  the  United  States,  but  fighting 
against  them  separately.  In  'Germania  Triumphant,'  the  United 
States  are  first  attacked  and  defeated  by  both  sea  and  land,  and 
Britain  is  represented  as  chuckle-headed  enough,  and  base 
enough  to  look  on  and  do  nothing.  Then  comes  Britain's  turn. 
The  only  difference  in  Dr.  Eisenhart's  vaticination  of  the  future 
is  that  Germany  takes  Britain  first  and  the  United  States  look 
on.  Britain  is  disposed  of,  'and  now'  says  the  prophet,  'it  was 
time  to  reckon  with  America/  Not  even  these  half-sane  Pan- 
Germans  contemplate  the  possibility  of  dealing  with  Britain 
and  the  United  States  together." 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  355 

Price  Collier  (213)  says: 

"In  discussing  Senator  Lodge's  resolution  before  the  United 
States  Senate,  on  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  the  German  press  spoke 
of  us  as  'hirnverbrannte  Yankees/  'bornierte  Yankee-Gehirne, 
('crazy  Yankees,'  'provincial  Yankee  intellects')  ;  and  the 
words  'Dollarika/  'Dollarei,'  and  'Dollarman,'  are  further 
malicious  expressions  of  their  envy  frequently  used." 

Schmoller,  the  political  economist,  writes: 

"We  must  at  all  costs  hope  for  the  formation  in  Southern 
Brazil,  of  a  State  with  twenty  or  thirty  millions." 

"Germany's  purpose  in  the  great  war,  as  seen  from  here, 
is  to  teach  a  reluctant  world  that  what  the  German  Kaiser  says 
goes.  It  is  a  war  for  the  vindication  of  the  Prussian  say-so; 
a  war  of  destruction  and  extermination  of  whatever  stands  up 
against  Prussian  domination;  a  war  to  parcel  out  the  world 
anew,  and  give  Prussia  what  she  wants.  Prussia  has  dominated 
the  rest  of  Germany  so  completely  % that  it  has  forgotten  that 
there  ever  were  ideas  in  Germany  that  were  not  Prussian. 
Undoubtedly  Prussia  is  eager  to  dominate  the  rest  of  mankind 
in  the  same  way,  and  morally  capable  of  using  any  available 
means  to  do  it.  With  the  Prussian  idea  it  is  truly  a  case  of 
world-power  or  downfall.  It  is  an  idea  that  is  incapable  of 
repose,  that  requires  periodical  exercise  in  the  field,  and  must 
be  fed  on  conquest  if  it  is  to  keep  its  strength. 

"That  is  not  at  all  true  of  German  'kultur,'  which  we  have 
so  much  been  told  the  Germans  are  fighting  to  defend.  The 
German  'kultur'  means  pig-iron,  Krupps,  ships,  beer,  chemicals, 
music,  discipline,  military  service,  and  professors."  (214) 

It  is  obvious,  at  this  moment,  showing  through  the  recent 
"statements"  and  "announcements"  of  the  highly  placed 
Germans  whom  I  have  quoted,  that  at  least  the  possibility 
of  Germany's  disregard  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  is  present 
in  their  minds.  Circumstances  enjoin  caution.  Americans 


356  A  TEXT-BOOK  OP  TEE  WAR 

are  to  be  placated — just  now — not  irritated  or  alarmed. 
Bernhardi,  Trietschke,  Wintzer,  Eisenhart,  Schmoller  are 
to  be  repudiated. 

But  in  view  of  her  callous  and  brutal  disregard  of  formal 
obligations,  entered  into  with  the  majority  of  the  civilized 
nations  of  the  world,  and  in  view  of  the  many  other  reasons 
(See  Chapter  XI)  for  doubting  the  reliability  of  German 
statements  at  this  time,  can  any  American  contemplate 
with  equanimity  the  possibility  of  this  war  ending  in  a 
Germania  Triumphant  ? 

Is  that  a  prospect  which,  in  view  of  what  we  know  of  the 
purpose,  interest,  determination  not  only  of  the  military 
caste,  but,  at  least  for  a  time,  of  the  whole  nation,  Ameri- 
cans can  regard  with  indifference  or  a  condition  which  they 
can  await  with  serenity? 

Ferrero,  the  Italian  philosophical  historian,  practically 
answers  that  question  when  he  says:  (215) 

"This  war  will  cither  increase  still  more  the  military  caste 
in  Germany  or  will  largely  destroy  it.  Germany  is  moved  to  the 
conflict  with  the  expectation  of  repeating  1870:  that  is  of 
making  a  rapid,  victorious  campaign^  the  cost  of  which  will 
be  covered  by  the  immense  indemnities  imposed  upon  the  con- 
quered. And  if  the  General  Staff  succeeds  in  this  enterprise, 
the  German  army,  and  the  Hohenzollerns  who  are  its  leaders, 
will  achieve  such  prestige  in  Germany,  in  Europe,  and  in  the 
world,  that  no  strength  can  oppose  them." 

As  Powys  says:  (216) 

"It  is  inconceivable  that  it  should  be  good  for  civilization  at 
large  to  witness  the  triumph  of  the  German  spirit  over  Europe. 
The  triumph  of  the  German  spirit  over  Europe  would  mean 
the  triumph  of  system  rather  than  life,  of  criticism  rather  than 
creation,  of  materialism  rather  than  mysticism,  and  of  self- 
satisfied  optimism,  rather  than  those  tragic  questionings  of  fate 
that  mark  the  perplexity  of  the  noble  soul. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  357 

"Scientific  efficiency,  material  progress,  inexhaustible  erudi- 
tion— these  are  not  everything.  Man  cannot  live  by  science 
alone,  or  discipline  either.  Life  must  be  lived  by  the  masses, 
by  the  people." 

But  Professor   Hale  still   more  fully    and   specifically 
answers  the  question:  (217) 

"What  do  we  Americans  pray  for  as  the  issue  of  this  great 
struggle?  Russia  is  autocratic,  but  she  has  abundantly  pro- 
duced men  who  eagerly  suffered  martyrdom  for  freedom.  Ger- 
many did  once,  but  has  stopped.  Nor  does  German  America 
seem  any  longer  to  raise  up  citizens  of  the  Carl  Schurz  kind, 
who  rebelled  against  this  very  bureaucratic  militarism  that 
has  produced  the  war.  England,  France  and  Belgium  are 
democratic  countries.  Miin/sterberg  (218)  speaks  of  'the 
tremendous  increase  of  the  monarchical  conviction.5  Von 
Billow,  for  twelve  years  German  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs, 
quotes  with  approval,  in  his  just  published  'Imperial  Germany/ 
the  statement,  'German  parliaments,  in  a  comparatively  short 
space  of  time,  mostly  sink  to  the  level  of  a  district  council/ 
and  expresses  his  own  conceptions  in  such  sentences  as:  *In 
history  strong  military  States  have  always  required  monarchical 
guidance/  and  'In  foreign  as  well  as  home  politics  I  considered 
it  my  noblest  task  to  the  best  of  my  understanding  and  ability 
to  strengthen,  protect  and  support  the  crown,  not  only  on 
account  of  deep  loyalty  and  personal  affection  for  the  wearer, 
but  also  because  I  see  in  the  crown  the  cornerstone  of  Prussia 
and  the  keystone  of  the  empire.'  As  for  Austria,  it  was  against 
this  very  Francis  Joseph  that  Cavour  planned,  and  Garibaldi 
fought,  for  Italian  liberty.  Which  type  of  ideas  do  we  want 
to  see  succeed? 

"The  victory  of  the  Allies  would  mean  an  English  England, 
a  French  France,  an  Italian  Italy,  a  Russian  Russia,  a  German 
Germany.  It  would  mean  a  Europe  of  free  nations,  each 
developing  its  own  characteristics  and  ideals.  Germany  would 
not,  I  hope  and  believe,  even  lose  her  foreign  possessions,  except 
the  little  one  taken  from  China,  which  should  be  handed  back. 
But  she  should  be  made  to  restore  Schleswig-Holstein  to  Den- 
mark and  Alsace-Lorraine  to  France.  She  should  be  made  to 


358  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

take  her  place  as  one  of  the  family  of  equal  nations,  and  not 
its  mistress.  And  we  should  lend  our  strength  at  once,  as  well 
as  our  good  wishes,  to  this  end. 

"The  victory  of  Germany  and  Austria  would  mean  a  Ger- 
manized and  bureaucratically  controlled  England,  France,  Rus- 
sia and  Italy;  for  Italy  would  not  survive.  It  would  be  a 
world  intolerable  to  live  in,  and  intolerable  for  an  American  to 
think  about.  But  thinking  about  it  is  not  the  only  thing  that 
he  Avould  suffer. 

"The  victory  of  Germany  would  put  at  her  disposal  an  enor- 
mous fleet,  consisting  of  all  the  ships  that  survived  the  war. 
Her  ambition  would  not  be  sated.  She  aims  at  nothing  less 
than  world  dominion.  'Deutschland  iiber  alles'  does  not  mean 
'with  the  exception  of  the  United  States/  She  has  known  how 
to  attack  us.  The  moment  she  had  a  trained  German  personnel 
for  her  immense  navy,  South  America,  or  as  much  as  she  wanted 
of  it  from  time  to  time,  would  become  a  German  colony.  The 
nucleus  already  exists  in  Brazil,  and  could  easily  enough  pro- 
duce an  excuse  for  war  if  one  was  thought  desirable  for  his- 
torical purposes.  To  the  winds  would  go  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
and  South  American  freedom.  We,  with  our  then  relatively 
tiny  navy,  should  be  helpless,  either  to  keep  Germany  off  or  to 
dislodge  her.  From  South  America  she  would  strike  at  us. 
Our  coasts  would  be  at  her  mercy,  and  she  could  land  her  dis- 
ciplined troops  anywhere.  The  country  would  be  full  of  spies, 
as  France  and  Belgium  are  to-day.  We  should  fight  desperately, 
and  our  land  is  of  great  extent.  But  only  disciplined  armies 
can  prevail  in  these  times.  Guerilla  warfare  is  useless.  Fight- 
ing would  be  done  here  by  railroads  and  the  reduction  of  great 
centres.  The  population  of  Germany  and  Austria  is  to-day 
larger  than  ours  by  some  sixteen  millions;  and  Germany,  then 
the  mistress  of  Europe,  could  safely  bring  an  army  into  the 
field  from  many  quarters,  both  of  Europe  and  South  America. 
The  struggle  would  be  bitter.  We  should  have  the  advantage 
in  distance;  but  the  ocean  is  narrow  to-day,  as  the  presence  of 
soldiers  from  all  parts  of  the  world  on  the  battlefields  of  France 
has  shown  us.  And  Germany  would  have  every  other  possible 
start  upon  us. 

"This  is  no  idle  speculation.  It  is  no  more  a  nightmare  than 
was  the  possibility  of  a  Germanized  Europe  a  few  months  ago. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  359 

We  should  stop  it  all  by  throwing  our  strength  now  upon  the 
side  of  the  Allies. 

"I  have  put  my  arguments  on  the  basis  of  Germany's  break- 
ing of  international  law.  But  I  will  put  it  also  on  another 
basis.  War  must  come  to  an  end.  It  does  not  belong  to  our 
generation  or  to  civilization.  Convention  1  of  The  Hague  does 
not  make  it  compulsory  for  any  country  to  arbitrate  a  dispute 
such  as  that  between  Austria  and  Servia,  if  it  does  not  wish 
to.  But  it  also  does  not  forbid  any  power  in  the  world  to  fall 
upon  the  aggressor.  The  American  people  know  who  was  the 
aggressor,  just  as  Italy  knew.  We  have  had  the  statements  of 
both  sides.  That  guilty  government  should  be  taught  that 
a  monstrous  war  of  aggression  will  never  in  the  future  be 
tolerated.  Such  a  lesson  would  go  very  far  to  stop  all  wars." 

Most  Americans  I  think  agree  to-day  with  Powys,  that 
individual  liberty  is  likely  to  flourish  when  all  organized 
Empires  are  forgotten. 

"The  great  philosophical  anarchists  of  Paris  and  Petrograd 
stretch  out  their  hands  across  the  battlefield  to  the  religious 
believers  in  Delhi  and  Tibet.  The  free-thinking  radicals  in 
Manchester  greet  the  faithful  orthodox  in  Moscow.  The 
opposite  ends  of  the  earth  are  agreed,  in  one  thing  at  least — 
that  they  will  not  suffer  a  State-Machine  to  over-ride  the  human 
spirit,  or  a  bastard  'efficiency'  to  strangle  the  beauty  and 
variety  of  human  life. 

"Let  Americans  who  waver  in  their  allegiance  to  the  cause 
of  the  future  of  the  human  sp;rit  because  of  Miinsterberg's 
talk  about  'Cossacks  with  their  Pogroms'  and  English  and 
French  with  their  'colored  races,'  think  of  the  growth  of  their 
own  republic.  Let  them  think  of  these  great  principles  of 
individual  liberty,  as  against  all  government-machines,  upon 
which  the  American  ideal  is  based.  Let  them  think  of  Jeffer- 
son and  of  Emerson,  of  Franklin  and  of  Walt  Whitman ;  and  let 
them  decide  whether  they  prefer  to  live  in  a  world  dominated 
by  over-drilled  and  over-bearing  'efficiency,'  or  in  a  world  of 
free,  instvnotive  beauty,  and  free,  instinctive  faith!"  (219) 


360  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

And  again  when  he  says:  (220) 

"Germany  is  fighting — pushed  on  by  her  'Harnacks,  Hseckels 
and  Euckens' — pushed  on  by  her  Munsterbergs — in  order  to 
fetter  and  enchain  the  world  in  the  pseudo-scientific  chains  of 
mechanical  order,  mechanical  efficiency,  and  materialistic 
thought.  The  Allies  are  fighting  to  liberate  the  world  from 
this  oppressive  tyranny.  They  are  using  the  strength  and  dar- 
ing of  the  Russian  Empire  and  the  strength  and  daring  of  the 
British  Empire,  in  order  that  all  races  and  countries,  both  in 
the  West  and  the  East,  shall  be  free  to  develop  their  intellect, 
their  traditions,  their  art,  their  religious  faith,  unpersecuted 
by  German  science. 

"If  when  the  war  is  over  the  Russian  Empire  and  the  British 
Empire,  or  one  or  the  other  of  them,  were  to  use  their  victory 
to  force  Anglo-Saxon  ideas  or  Slavonic  ideas  upon  races  that 
were  neither  Anglo-Saxon  nor  Slavonic — upon  the  Teutonic 
states,  for  example — it  would  be  the  duty  of  the  other  Allies,  the 
duty  of  France  and  Japan  and  Italy — if  Italy  joins  in — to  see 
to  it  that  the  great  complex  Idea,  which  they  all  share  in  com- 
mon, was  not  thus  narrowed  and  perverted. 

"No,  this  is  not  a  war  between  Europe  led  by  Germany,  and 
Asia  led  by  Russia  and  England;  it  is  a  war  between  the 
mechanical  efficiency  of  Germany  and  the  instinct  of  self-pres- 
ervation of  the  rest  of  the  world. 

"Let  Russia  give  more  liberty  to  her  Polish  and  Finnish  and 
Jewish  subjects;  let  England  give  more  liberty  to  Ireland  and 
to  India.  Let  both  of  them  refrain  from  imposing  their  ideas 
upon  Teutonic  people.  Then  it  will  be  perfectly  lawful  for 
Russia  to  snatch  Slavonic  races  from  the  grip  of  Germany  and 
for  England  and  France  to  liberate  Danes,  Flemings,  and  Gauls. 

"If  the  result  of  the  war,  upon  Germany  herself,  is  to  destroy 
the  new  Bismarckian  Empire,  and  throw  her  back  upon  her 
ancient  free  states,  no  German  who  loves  real  German  culture 
need  regret  it." 

I  need  dwell  no  longer  upon  this  point. 
Both  duty  and  self-interest  should  lead  America  to  make 
eure  at  whatever  sacrifice  that  German  militarism  does  not 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  361 

in  the  outrageous  war  which  it  has  precipitated,  triumph 
over  the  democratic  ideals  for  which  little  Belgium  has 
almost  laid  down  her  national  existence,  for  which — under 
whatever  nominal  form  of  government — the  Allies  are 
valiantly  fighting,  and  for  which  we  as  well  as  they  should 
be  ready  to  make  any  sacrifice  of  life  or  treasure  that  may 
be  needed. 

I  believe  that: 

"As  theocracy,  or  the  attempt  to  make  men  righteous  by 
force  failed  in  the  New  England  colonies;  as  serfdom  and 
slavery,  or  the  attempt  to  make  men  industrious  by  force, 
failed  in  Russia  and  the  United  States;  as  feudalism,  or  the 
attempt  to  make  men  loyal  and  chivalrous  by  force,  failed  in 
England;  and  as  the  spirit  of  materialistic  revolution,  or  the 
attempt  to  make  men  liberal-minded  and  intellectually  free  by 
force,  failed  in  France — so  the  doctrine  of  Maehtpolitik,  the 
attempt  by  Germany  to  impose  a  civilization  upon  humanity  by 
force;  must  fail — must  ~be  made  to  fail."  (221) 

Dr.  Abbott,  the  venerable  and  respected  editor  of  the 
American  weekly,  which  expressed  this  view,  was  obviously 
still  of  the  same  opinion  nearly  five  months  later.  He 
quotes  Prof.  Ostwald,  a  German  chemist,  who  had  recently 
said:  (222) 

"Bo  you  ask  me  what  it  is  that  Germany  wants?  Well, 
Germany  wants  to  organize  Europe,  for  up  to  now  Europe  has 
never  been  organized.  Germany  wishes  to  adopt  a  new  course 
for  realizing  her  idea  of  co-operative  energy  or  social  efficiency. 
How  does  Germany  propose  to  realize  this  project  of  social 
efficiency  in  the  west  of  Europe?  She  demands  that  the  Ger- 
mans and  the  French  shall  have  an  equal  welcome  in  their 
respective  countries,  and  that  they  shall  be  permitted  to  work 
and  to  acquire  wealth  on  exactly  the  same  terms  in  either 
country.  ...  In  eastern  Europe  Germany  will  create  a 
confederation  of  states,  a  sort  of  Baltic  confederation,  which 


362  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

will  include  the  Scandinavian  countries,  Finland,  and  the  Baltic 
provinces.  Finally,  she  will  tear  Poland  from  Russia,  and  will 
make  of  it  a  new  independent  state.  The  moment  has  come,  I 
believe,  for  remodeling  the  map  of  Europe.  .  .  .  We,  or 
perhaps  rather  the  Germanic  race,  have  discovered  the  factor 
of  social  efficiency.  The  other  peoples  of  the  world  live  yet 
under  the  regime  of  individualism;  we  Germans  under  the 
regime  of  organized  co-operation.  With  us  everything  tends  to 
draw  from  the  individual  a  maximum  of  that  service  which  is 
most  useful  to  society.  In  this  idea  we  Germans  find  liberty  in 
its  highest  form." 

Dr.  Abbott  replies: 

"If  it  is  the  purpose  of  the  leaders  of  Germany  in  this  war, 
as  I  am  bound  to  believe  it  is  from  the  testimony  of  their 
own  words,  to  impose  their  ideals  of  political  and  social  virtue 
upon  Continental  Europe,  and  if  they  are  successful  in  achiev- 
ing that  purpose,  then  the  United  States  and  the  three  great 
republics  of  South  America  will  be  the  only  great  nations  left 
to  cherish  and  protect  the  ideals  of  intellectual  freedom  and 
individual  liberty  for  which  our  fathers  struggled  in  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution  with  the  aid  of  such  Germans  as  Steuben,  and 
in  our  Civil  War  with  the  aid  of  such  Germans  as  Carl 
Schurz  and  Franz  Sigel.  You  remember  the  noble  fight  which 
Cavour  made  for  democratic  institutions  in  Italy  against  the 
despotism  of  Metternich;  you  remember  his  death-bed  words, 
'Chiesa  libera  in  stato  libero'  which  may  be  paraphrased,  Free- 
dom of  conscience  in  a  free  country.  Social  efficiency  based  on 
force  cannot  exist  in  a  country  whose  citizens  believe  in  free- 
dom of  conscience  and  political  action. 

"I  am  aware  that  in  this  war  some  Frenchmen  are  actuated 
by  a  spirit  of  revenge,  that  some  Englishmen  are  actuated  by 
a  spirit  of  jealousy,  that  some  Russians  are  actuated  by  a 
spirit  of  aggrandizement.  But,  on  the  whole,  I  believe  the 
Allies  are  fighting  the  battle  for  the  liberty  and  the  free 
development  of  the  little  state  and  of  the  unimportant  indi- 
vidual. They  are  therefore  fighting  my  battle.  I  believe  it 
may  be  said  in  a  very  real  sense  that  a  victory  of  the  German 
militarists  will  destroy  the  German  people,  and  that  a  victory 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  363 

of  the  Allies  will  save  them.  I  am  not  at  all  sure  that  it  is 
not  the  moral  duty  of  the  United  States,  which  stands  for  the 
principles  of  Cavour,  Mazzini,  and  Garibaldi,  of  Grotius,  Carl 
Schurz,  and  Gottfried  Kinkel,  of  John  Hampden,  George  Wash- 
ington, and  Abraham  Lincoln,  to  take  some  public  and  out- 
spoken position  against  the  purpose  of  the  German  militarists 
to  remake  the  map  of  Europe  on  the  lines  so  graphically  laid 
down  by  Professor  Ostwald.  For  who  knows  but  that  such  a 
map  made  in  such  a  way  would  mean  the  remaking  of  the  great 
chart  of  human  civilization?  And  in  that  chart  the  people  of 
this  country  have  a  very  profound  and  living  interest." 


CHAPTEE  XVI. 


What  is  the  Effect  of  the  Official  Attitude,  Past  and  Present, 
of  This  Country  on  (a)  Americans;    (b)  Other  Peoples? 

a.  Americans,  I  hope  and  believe,  are  becoming  increas- 
ingly restive  under  existing  conditions. 

As  they  look  back,  they  are,  so  far  as  our  present  unpre- 
paredness  is  concerned,  confronted  by  the  opposing  ideals 
of  Woodrow  Wilson  and  George  Washington:  (223) 


"We  are  at  peace  with  all  the 
world.  No  one  who  speaks 
counsel  based  on  fact  or  drawn 
from  a  just  and  candid  inter- 
pretation of  realities  can  say 
that  there  is  reason  to  fear  that 
from  any  quarter  our  independ- 
ence or  the  integrity  of  our  ter- 
ritory is  threatened.  Dread  of 
the  power  of  any  other  nation 
we  are  incapable  of.  We  are 
not  jealous  of  rivalry  in  the 
fields  of  commerce  or  of  any 
other  peaceful  achievement.  We 
mean  to  live  our  own  lives  as 
we  will,  but  we  mean  also  to 
let  live.  We  are,  indeed,  a  true 
friend  to  all  the  nations  of  the 
world,  because  we  threaten 
none,  covet  the  possessions  of 
none,  desire  the  overthrow  of 
none.  Our  friendship  can  be 
accepted  and  is  accepted  with- 
out reservation,  because  it  is  of- 


"I  cannot  recommend  to  your 
notice  measures  for  the  fulfil- 
ment of  our  duties  to  the  rest 
of  the  world,  without  again 
pressing  upon  you  the  necessity 
of  placing  ourselves  in  a  condi- 
tion of  complete  defense,  and  of 
exacting  from  them  the  fulfil- 
ment of  their  duties  toward  us. 
The  United  States  ought  not  to 
indulge  a  persuasion,  that,  con- 
trary to  the  order  of  human 
events,  they  will,  forever,  keep 
at  a  distance  those  painful  ap- 
peals to  arms,  with  which  the 
history  of  every  other  nation 
abounds.  There  is  a  rank  due 
to  the  United  States  among  na- 
tions, which  will  be  withheld,  if 
not  absolutely  lost,  by  the  repu- 
tation of  weakness.  If  we  de- 
sire to  avoid  insult,  we  must  be 
able  to  repel  it.  If  we  desire  to 
secure  peace,  one  of  the  most 


(364) 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  365 

fered  in  a  spirit  and  for  a  pur-  powerful    instruments    of    our 

pose   which    no   one   need    ever  rising    prosperity,    it    must    be 

question    or    suspect.      Therein  known  that  we  are  at  all  times 

lies   our  greatness."  —  President  ready     for     war."  —  President 

Woodrow   Wilson   to   Congress,  George  Washington  to  Congress, 

Dec.  8,  1914.  Dec.  3, 


I  select  one  of  many  communications  to  the  papers  that 
voice  the  widespread  feeling  of  unrest  and  dissatisfaction  : 
(224) 

"Many  loyal  Americans  feel  deeply  humiliated  at  the  position 
in  which  our  Government  now  stands  with  regard  to  the  war 
which  is  devastating  Europe.  When  the  German  Kaiser  ap- 
pealed to  our  President  —  personally  and  publicly  —  he  gave  him 
not  only  the  opportunity  but  made  it  incumbent  upon  him  to 
protest  publicly  and  in  the  name  of  justice  and  humanity 
against  the  contraventions  of  all  the  laws  of  nations  of  which 
the  Germans  already  stood  convicted.  If  these  acts  had  been 
committed  by  France  or  by  England,  it  would  have  been  equally 
the  duty  of  our  Government  to  protest  against  them,  and  a 
dignified  and  forcible  remonstrance  made  then  might  have  had 
its  influence  without  affecting  our  neutrality  or  endangering 
our  peace  ;  in  any  case  we  would  have  freed  our  souls  from  the 
blood-guiltiness  of  silence,  and  from  an  indelible  stain  upon  our 
history  as  a  nation. 

"While  we  continue  to  send  shiploads  of  food  to  the  Belgians, 
let  us  also  with  fearless  uprightness  speak  our  minds  to  those 
who  are  starving  them,  exacting  from  them  the  last  loaf  of 
bread,  the  last  pound  of  flesh,  and  the  uttermost  tribute  that 
can  be  wrung  from  their  distress!  Cannot  our  countrymen 
realize  that  those  who  are  left  of  this  heroic  people,  with  their 
King  beside  them  in  the  trenches,  that  the  French,  changed  be- 
yond all  belief  from  their  old  pleasure-loving  lightheartedness, 
that  the  very  flower  of  the  manhood  of  Great  Britain,  aye,  and 
even  the  half-civilized  peoples  from  steppes  of  far  Siberia  are 
battling  desperately  not  only  for  themselves  and  their  countries, 
but  for  us  and  for  all  that  we  hold  sacred?  Is  our  President 
so  blinded  by  his  hope  of  being  one  day  chosen  to  sit  in  the 
'seats  of  the  mighty'  as  arbiter  of  the  destinies  of  nations  that 


366  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  TEE  WAR 

he  cannot  or  will  not  see  that,  if  we  now  fail  to  make  a  stand 
for  righteousness,  there  will  be  later  no  one  so  poor  as  to  do  us 
reverence?  If  we  are  afraid  now  as  a  nation  to  express  any 
sympathy  or  to  show  any  prejudice  for  right  as  against  might, 
or  to  protest  without  fear  or  favor  against  injustice,  from 
whom  can  we  look  for  aid  or  even  for  moral  -support  when  our 
time  of  trial  comes?" 

I  have  received  in  MS.  from  Mr.  Herbert  Armitage 
Drake,  a  paper  entitled  "The  Prevention  of  War.  A  Con- 
tribution to  World  Peace/'  which  he  has  kindly  given  me 
permission  to  use,  as  an  expression  of  opinion  from  another 
American.  It  is  valuable  and  interesting  in  itself,  and 
equally  significant  as  an  indication  of  the  views  which  I 
believe  are  now  those  of  a  considerable  and  influential  pro- 
portion of  our  people. 

Mr.  Drake  objects  to  a  "Federation  of  Nations"  with  an 
international  police  to  enforce  its  decrees,  because,  as  here- 
tofore planned,  it  would  be  made  up  of  incongruous  ele- 
ments, and  would  be  half  monarchical  and  only  half  demo- 
cratic. 

He 


"Suggestions  for  the  prevention  of  war  so  far  made  are 
likely  to  remain  suggestions  only  for  a  long  time  to  come.  The 
Federation  of  Nations  is  a  dream  to  be  realized  only  in  the  far- 
distant  future.  The  organization  by  the  nations  of  a  constabu- 
lary or  world  police  in  support  of  the  Hague  Tribunal,  to  give 
force  and  sanction  to  its  decrees,  would  develop  weaknesses 
similar  to  or  more  disturbing  than  those  of  the  confederation  of 
the  thirteen  independent  nations  which  formed  the  United 
States  prior  to  the  Federal  Constitution.  It  would  be  made  up 
of  elements  from  sources  too  incongruous  to  serve  any  united 
purpose;  from  weak  states  and  powerful  states,  from  small 
nations  and  great  nations,  from  neutral  states  and  belligerent 
states. 

"A  valuable  suggestion  of  this  character  recently  appearing 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  367 

in  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  with  the  form  of  a  constitution 
worked  out  for  an  association  of  all  the  great  powers,  has  a 
weakness  common  to  all  of  them.  The  entente  or  alliance  con- 
templated would  be  composed  of  monarchies  committed  to  au- 
tocracy and  conquest;  and  of  democracies  committed  to  peace 
and  the  rights  of  man.  As1  was  said  by  Lincoln,  of  our  nation 
before  the  war,  that  it  could  not  remain  half  slave  and  half 
free,  so  the  proposed  organization  could  not  be  realized,  and 
become  purposeful  and  effectual,  half  democratic  and  half  mon- 
archical. 

"Appertaining  to  monarchical  states,  there  is  no  rule,  no 
law,  no  regulation  for  declaring  or  inaugurating  war.  There 
is  no  means  for  the  enforcement  of  such  a  rule,  if  it  existed; 
and  it  is  not  likley  to  exist  while  irresponsible  monarchs  have 
their  way.  Monarchs  are  those  who  rule  the  people  of  the 
nation,  but  who  are  not  ruled;  those  who  are  entirely  without 
responsibility  to  the  people.  As  remarked  by  The  Nation  at  the 
time,  the  outbreak  of  the  present  war  owes  its  inception  to  three 
emperors,  one  of  whom  is  senile,  one  of  whom  is  subject  to 
periods  of  melancholia  and  the  other  of  whom  has  given  evi- 
dence of  disturbed  mental  balance.  The  declaration  and  pre- 
cipitation of  this  war  was  a  perfect  example  of  violent  anarchy. 
The  'confusion  worse  confounded'  which  has  succeeded  it,  in  the 
war  zones  of  Europe  and  in  the  countries  involved,  is  an  ex- 
ample of  chaos.  Law,  rule,  order,  the  concomitants  of  civiliza- 
tion, are  non-existent.  Barbarism,  brutalized  tenfold,  is  substi- 
tuted. The  anarch  who  is  responsible  for  this  social  and  eco- 
nomic cataclysm,  deserves  superhuman  condemnation.  No  mat- 
ter who,  or  how  many  are  responsible  with  him,  he  could  have 
scotched  the  wicked  monster. 

"Monarchies,  of  which  Austria,  Germany  and  Russia  are  illus- 
trations, declare  war  without  the  permission  of  their  legisla- 
tures. They  have  just  done  so.  Their  legislatures  are  not 
supreme.  Their  ministries  are  not  responsible  to  their  legisla- 
tures or  to  the  people.  Their  monarchs  in  the  matter  and 
manner  of  declaring  and  precipitating  war,  are  responsible  to 
nobody.  They  are  uncontrolled,  intolerable,  insufferable  an- 
archs. In  the  words  of  Byron,  written  of  Mark  Antony  and  his 
congeners,  they  are  'Imperial  anarchs,  doubling  human  woes; 
God !  was  Thy  globe  ordain'd  for  such  to  win  and  lose  ?' 

"That  there  should  be  some  rule,  law  or  regulation,  some- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 


thing  civilized  controlling  the  declaration  and  inauguration  of 
war,  is  beyond  question.  A  plebiscite  in  democracies  may  and 
should  be  provided,  so  that  the  men  and  women  who  are  to 
carry  on  and  suffer  by  war,  may  say  whether  there  shall  be 
war  or  arbitration.  The  nation  that  goes  to  war  without  a 
referendum  to  the  people,  should  be  made  to  await  the  refer- 
endum of  its  combatant  and  required  to  submit  to  arbitration, 
if  this  referendum  so  decides. 

"The  late  Herbert  Spencer,  in  his  first  great  work,  'Social 
Statics,'  demonstrated  a  fundamental  social  principle.  The 
substance  of  it  is  that  the  'Liberty  of  each,  limited  by  the  like 
liberty  of  all,  is  the  rule  in  conformity  with  which  society  must 
be  organized.'  A  formal  and  explicit  statement  of  this 
principle  is  that  'Every  man  has  freedom  to  do  all  that  he 
wills,  provided  he  infringes  not  the  equal  freedom  of  any 
other  man.'  This  fundamental  principle  is  no  less  applicable 
to  nations  than  to  the  citizens  who  compose  them.  It  will  then 
read,  'Every  nation  has  freedom  to  do  all  that  it  wills,  provided 
it  infringes  not  the  equal  freedom  of  any  other  nation/ 

"As  the  citizen  must  preserve  order  and  uphold  civilization, 
and  arrest  the  law  breaker  caught  in  the  act  of  infringing  the 
freedom  of  another  citizen,  so  should  peace-loving,  civilized  na- 
tions uphold  the  freedom  of  weak,  small,  neutral  nations,  vio- 
lently infringed  by  the  imperialism  of  a  great  power  having  'its 
roots  not  only  in  the  ambition  of  a  single  monarch,  but  in  the 
soaring  will  to  power  of  the  nation  itself.'  ( See  Lichtenberger's 
"Germany  and  Its  Evolution  in  Modern  Times,"  p.  175.) 

"Democracies,  the  nations  which  are  committed  to  peace, 
and  the  nations  in  which  nationality  exists,  but  in  which  hu- 
manity is  superior  to  and  above  nationality  and  imperialism, 
the  nations  in  which  the  legislatures,  the  representatives  of  the 
people,  are  supreme,  and  the  people  and  the  rights  of  man  are 
dominant  and  the  state  is  servient,  these  only  are  the  nations 
qualified  to  form  an  alliance  to  make  rules  and  regulations 
appertaining  to  the  inauguration  and  conduct  of  war,  its  pre- 
vention and  suppression. 

"An  alliance  that  can  be  realized  and  become  effectual  would 
be  composed  of  democracies,  committed  to  Magna  Charta  and 
its  affirmations  in  the  English  constitution,  to  the  principles 
of  our  own  Declaration  of  Independence  and  to  the  spirit  of 
the  French  Revolution;  committed  to  uphold  in  its  integrity 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  369 

the  government  of  each  autonomous  and  homogeneous  nation, 
undisturbed;  to  control  and  abolish  militarism;  to  prevent  and 
suppress  wars  of  conquest;  to  end  anarchy  among  irresponsible 
rulers  of  monarchies  in  declaring  and  precipitating  war;  and 
to  subject  the  inauguration  of  war  to  an  ante-bellum  period  of 
six  months  between  its  declaration  and  the  commencement  of 
hostilities. 

"There  would,  of  course,  be  many  details  of  this  alliance  to 
be  worked  out.  These  allied  democracies  could  establish  for 
their  purposes  an  international  court ;  but  they  would  be  a  law 
unto  themselves,  as  to  the  extent  of  their  own  land  and  naval 
forces,  because  only  by  force  could  they  exact  and  enforce  the 
end  and  purpose  of  their  alliance?  And  let  it  be  remembered 
always,  that  a  navy  alone  is  not  an  arm  of  conquest.  It  is  a 
peace  establishment,  except  only  when  used  in  conjunction  with 
and  in  support  of  over-sea  armies  of  invasion.  A  military  es- 
tablishment of  each  democracy  in  support  of  that  alliance, 
because  committed  to  peace,  would  be  necessary  and  justified. 
But  a  crushing  military  establishment,  such  as  France  has  been 
obliged  to  maintain  in  self-defense,  or  as  we  should  be  obliged 
to  maintain  to  defend  ourselves  singlehanded  against  a  war 
of  aggression,  would  be  necessary.  (See  Chapter  XIX). 

"Here  is  a  great  opportunity  for  diplomacy,  for  the  new  diplo- 
macy, the  diplomacy  of  candor  and  sincerity,  diplomacy  for  the 
service  of  the  people.  'For  after  all/  as  Sir  Henry  Jones  re- 
marks in  his  'Idealism  as  a  Practical  Creed/  'our  salvation 
must  come  through  the  state.'  Contemplate  for  a  moment  the 
magnificent  achievement  of  the  diplomacy  of  France  in  nego- 
tiating the  Triple  Entente — in  committing  autocratic  Russia  to 
the  armed  support  of  the  Liberty,  Equality  and  Fraternity  of 
the  French  Republic. 

"The  states  representing  democracies  should  at  once,  by  their 
diplomatic  representatives,  facilitate  an  approach  to  and  a 
formation  of  an  alliance  on  the  lines,  or  on  some  of  the  lines, 
here  indicated.  It  is  not  known  how  long  this  war  will  last. 
It  is  not  too  late  to  begin  now.  It  would  be  the  very  depth  of 
stupidity  for  us  to  sit  still  and  listen  to  the  deceiving  words 
of  Germans  and  Pro-Germans — to  attend  to  Pan-Germanic 
falsehoods  while  we  lie  supinely  at  ease,  jeopardizing  civiliza- 
tion and  the  world's  interest,  for  which  France  and  England  and 
Belgium  are  pouring  out  their  lifeblood  to-day.  The  United 

24 


370  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF*  THE  WAR 

States,  Brazil,  Argentine,  Chili  and  Venezuela  in  the  Western 
Hemisphere;  Norway,  Sweeden,  Denmark,  Holland,  Italy  and 
Portugal  in  Europe  and  China  and  Siam  in  Asia,  or  some  of 
them,  could  be  formed  into  an  alliance  at  once  to  stop  this  war 
of  conquest.  We  could  offer  to  equip  and  send  volunteers  to  the 
firing  line.  It  would  be  voluntary  on  the  part  of  these  men 
and  patriots  to  fight  for  what  their  forefathers  were  forced  to 
fight  for  and  for  what  France  aided  them  to  fight  for  in  1776 — 
to  fight  for  what  Great  Britain  is  fighting  for  now. 

"What  if,  as  is  rumored,  Russia  should  fail  to  keep  her  prom- 
ise to  make  peace  only  when  her  allies  are  ready  to  make  peace, 
and  unite  with  her,  and  should  cease  war  before  Germany's  mili- 
tary power  were  crushed  ?  Civiliaztion  would  be  in  jeopardy. 

"But  our  assistance,  and  the  assistance  of  the  South  Ameri- 
can Republics  already  named,  need  not  extend  to  sending  our 
own  youth  to  the  front.  Our  moral  support  and  commitment  to 
the  side  of  order  and  civilization  need  not  extend  any  further 
than  preventing  the  importation  of  food  and  petrol  into  Ger- 
many through  Holland  and  Sweden;  than  releasing  with  our 
navy  the  navies  of  France  and  Great  Britain  from  the  police 
duty  now  imposed  on  them ;  than  the  sending  of  our  troops  to  do 
colonial  garrison  duty  for  France  and  Great  Britain,  thus  re- 
leasing those  soldiers  to  go  to  the  Western  war  zone. 

"Let  us  consider  Germany,  with  her  Nietzsche,  glorifying 
power  in  man  as  the  supreme  end  of  life;  with  her  Treits<jhke, 
magnifying  her  power  as  the  most  desirable  and  formidable  in 
all  the  world,  and  favoring  its  expansion;  teaching,  with  her 
Bernhardi,  the  biological  necessity  of  war  to  social  develop- 
ment; with  her  remarkable  ability  in  adapting  to  her  economic 
uses  and  triumphs  the  world's  access  to  power  in  the  face  of  na- 
ture, i.  e.,  the  scientific  and  philosophic  achievements  of  the  nine- 
teenth century;  with  the  great  advance  in  business  and  social 
position  of  her  middle  classes  until,  with  them,  an  aristocracy 
of  wealth  and  success  is  competing  for  ascendency,  with  the 
traditional  and  titled  aristocracy  of  the  Prussian  squire;  sup- 
pressing their  help  with  long  hours  and  bribing  them  with  so- 
cial insurance  which  the  employees  largely  pay  for;  claiming 
more  markets  for  their  wares  and  more  ports  through  which  to 
trade  (see  Lichtenberger's  Germany  and  Dawson's  'Social  In- 
surance* passim)  ;  is  it  any  wonder  that  the  spirit  of  conquest 
overcame  all  opposition  and  that  the  soaring  will  to  power  con- 


OF  THE  WAR         an 


verted  her  into  a  hotbed  of  world  hatred?  This  cultivated 
German  world  hatred  supports  and  encourages  a  doctrine  the 
direct  contradiction  of  the  irrefutably  fundamental  national 
rights,  (as  obligatory  as  any  treaty),  above  set  forth,  viz:  the 
doctrine  of  aggressive  German  world  power,  by  and  under  which 
weak  and  neutral  states  have  no  rights  which  a  great  Power  is 
bound  to  respect. 

"The  war  spirit  'preached  to  the  children  at  school,  firmly 
implanted  in  the  hearts  of  the  soldiers  during  their  service  in 
the  regiment,'  prevailed,  'so  that  the  cult  of  the  army  had  few 
infidels  in  Germany'  before  the  war  was  ever  declared.  (See 
Lichtenberger's  'Germany,'  p.  142.)  Besides  all  these  causes 
and  influences,  the  war  cult  was  'carefully  fed  by  numberless 
patriotic  associations  throughout  the  country.'  (  Lichtenberger, 
Ibid.)  Hence  associations  ought  to  be  formed  in  this  country 
to  promote  the  end  and  purpose  of  the  proposed  alliance  and  its 
realization. 

"If  we  were  as  alive  to  our  duty  to-day  as  the  Germans  are 
to  theirs  as  they  see  it;  if  we  were  as  loyal  in  our  love  of  peace 
as  the  Germans  are  in  their  love  of  war;  if  we  were  as  strong 
to-day  in  our  opposition  to  conquest  as  the  Germans  are  strong 
in  their  support  of  it;  if  we  saw,  as  clearly  as  we  should  see, 
that  with  German  success  in  this  war  the  spirit  of  the  French 
Revolution  and  the  principles  of  our  own  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence will  be  put  in  jeopardy  and  a  depleting  war  of  our 
own  would  be  necessary  to  uphold  our  civilization  and  its  prin^ 
ciples  as  we  know  them,  for  ourselves;  if  we  could  realize  that 
France  and  England  are  fighting  for  the  same  rights  of  man  for 
which  we  fought  in  1776,  and  as  valiantly;  if  our  heralding  of 
Lincoln's  Gettysburg  speech  as  one  of  the  beacon  lights  of  civili- 
zation were  more  to  us  to-day  than  a  hollow  pretense,  we  should 
ally  ourselves  with  and  with  all  our  might,  fight  for  Belgium, 
France  and  Great  Britain,  'so  that  government  of  the  people, 
by  the  people,  for  the  people  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth.1  " 

Mr.  James  M.  Beck  (225)  in  a  communication  correct- 
ing a  report  of  a  speech  recently  delivered  (p.  481)  says 
that  what  he  then  did  say  was  : 

"That  we  could  and  should  (  1  )  protest  against  acknowledged 


372  A  TEXT-WOK  OF  THE  WAR 

violation  of  the  rules  of  civilized  war,  and   (2)  call  a  confer- 
ence of  the  neutral  states  of  the  world. 

"I  pointed  out  that  this  moral  protest,  although  we  could 
not  enforce  it  with  an  army  and  navy,  would  not  be  a  mere 
futility,  but  that  on  the  contrary,  if  our  country  should  voice 
the  public  opinion  of  the  world,  it  would  have  its  effect.  .  .  . 

"What  I  said  was  nothing  more  than  that  the  neutral  states 
of  the  world  might,  if  the  war  continued  to  desolate  the  entire 
world,  consider  whether  by  concerted  action  the  termination  of 
the  conflict  might  be  brought  about,  either  by  persuasion  or 
force.  The  force  which  they  could  exert  might  be  economic  as 
well  as  military. 

"The  organized  neutral  states  of  the  world,  exclusive  of  China 
and  the  Balkan  States,  have  a  population  of  nearly  250,000,000. 
Including  China,  but  excluding  the  Balkan  States  for  obvious 
reasons1,  the  inhabitants  of  the  neutral  states,  having  the  form 
and  potency  of  organized  government,  would  be  over  600,000,000. 
The  whole  world  is  suffering  from  this  conflict.  After  another 
year  of  fighting,  it  may  be  clear  that  the  contending  forces 
have  reached  a  military  stalemate  or  impasse  and  that  neither 
side  can  defeat  or  exhaust  the  other.  In  that  case,  if  the  neu- 
tral states  were  reasonably  agreed  as  to  the  cause  of  the  quarrel 
— and  I  freely  acknowledge  that  that  is  a  very  large  assumption 
— or  if  from  considerations  of  the  highest  self-interest  they 
were  unwilling  that  the  whole  world  should  continue  to  suffer 
indefinitely  for  the  quarrels  of  two  groups  of  European  states, 
then  it  is  not  impossible  that  these  neutral  states,  acting  in 
harmony  and  with  the  United  States  as  a  leader,  could  virtually 
compel  a  termination  of  the  war.  .  .  . 

"I  cannot  understand  how  humane  people  can  view  the 
methods  of  the  present  war  without  an  abhorrence  that  must 
at  times  find  expression  in  vigorous  language.  It  is  no  answer 
to  reply,  'This  is  war  and  war  is  hell.'  Wars  in  modern  times 
have  been  accompanied  by  a  certain  chivalry  which  gave  to  them 
a  sort  of  dignity  and  moral  beauty.  A  war,  however,  in  which 
powerful  warships  bombard  unfortified  coast  towns  of  no  stra- 
tegic value  and  shoot  down  school  children  on  their  way  to 
school,  and  in  which  Zeppelin  airships  pass  over  sleeping  vil- 
lages and  kill  babies  in  their  cradles,  has  no  resemblance  to  the 
other  wars  of  modern  times.  The  destruction  of  whole  cities, 
because  of  the  irresponsible  acts  of  a  few  infuriated  civilians, 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  373 

is  also  a  new  and  lamentable  departure  in  the  malignity  of  war. 

"A  striking  illustration  of  this  is  that  General  Gage's  army, 
when,  on  the  retreat  from  Lexington  and  Concord,  it  was  fired 
upon  by  justly  incensed  farmers,  who,  however,  were  civilians, 
did  not  wreak  its  vengeance  upon  the  town  of  Boston  or  kill  its 
leading  citizens.  This  method  of  vicarious  punishment  was  re- 
served for  the  20th  century. 

"I  share  with  many  Americans  an  intense  regret  that  the 
United  States  cannot  as  a  nation  protest  against  the  continuing 
destruction  of  the  ideals  of  civilization.  Our  silence  might  be 
explained  if  we  had  consistently  refused  to  intervene  in  the 
affairs  or  quarrels  of  any  other  nation ;  but  such  is  not  the  fact. 
The  present  Administration  was  so  shocked  by  the  alleged  com- 
plicity of  President  Huerta  in  the  cowardly  assassination  of 
Madero  that  to  show  its  detestation  it  broke  the  back  of  the  only 
stable  government  in  Mexico  and  thus  gave  it  for  the  last  two 
years  to  anarchy,  and  the  result  has  been  the  enthronement  of 
the  unspeakable  Villa. 

"If  we  were  thus  prepared  to  voice  our  protest  as  a  great 
moral  force  against  a  mere  incident  of  the  chronic  anarchy  in 
Mexico,  it  seems  strange  that  we  can  view  with  silence  and  with 
an  averted  eye  the  violation  of  those  regulations  of  war  which 
were  formulated  in  The  Hague  Convention  and  the  obligation 
of  which  our  nation,  in  common  with  forty  other  nations,  guar- 
anteed. 

"Our  silence  as  to  the  moral  aspect  of  the  war  is  somewhat 
emphasized  by  the  fact  that  this  country  has  twice  made  a 
formal  protest,  in  each  case  the  subject  of  the  protest  being  the 
interference  with  our  shipments  of  merchandise  to  foreign  mar- 
kets. Conceding  that  these  protests  are  just  and  necessary,  yet 
it  ought  to  bring  a  sense  of  humiliation  to  thoughtful  Ameri- 
cans that  all  that  we  can  find  in  this  gigantic  moral  cataclysm 
to  make  the  subject  of  a  protest  is  any  interference  with  our 
opportunity  to  make  money  out  of  the  situation. 

"All  this  can  have  but  one  inevitable  result,  whichever  of  the 
two  groups  of  combatants  may  ultimately  win,  and  that  is  a 
substantial  impairment  of  the  moral  authority  of  the  United 
States." 

If  we  can  do  no  more,  I  would  perforce  be  content  with 


374  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

Mr.  Beck's  programme,  because  if  it  were  politely — or  im- 
politely— Ignored,  as  it  probably  would  be,  it  would  result 
in  crystallizing  public  sentiment  in  this  and  in  other  coun- 
tries, and  could  not  fail  to  work  for  right  and  justice. 

In  the  same  issue  (226)  a  temperate  letter  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Mr.  Beck's  speech,  likewise  urges  a  "protest,"  but 
thinks  I  was  "foolish"  on  this  occasion  (p.  481)  in 
going  beyond  that  and  urging  actual  interference.  The 
difference  does  not  seem  to  me  to  be  as  great  essentially  as 
upon  the  surface.  The  writer  goes  on : 

"The  two  recent  attacks  upon  English  unfortified  towns,  one 
by  the  sea  and  the  other  by  the  air,  and  in  distinct  opposition 
to  the  agreement  which  Germany  signed,  'not  to  bombard  un- 
fortified towns,'  and  this  last  attack  by  Zeppelins  are  as  brutal 
as  the  raids  the  Indians  in  this  country  used  to  make,  thereby 
killing  women  and  children.  Such  a  method  of  warfare  has 
always  been  considered  as  barbarous,  and  is  in  poor  keeping 
with  the  claims  of  advanced  civilization. 

"Is  this  country  to  sit  quietly  by  without  a  word?  In  the 
name  of  true  civilization  and  in  the  name  of  outraged  decency  I 
say  that  we  should  as  individuals  and  as  a  united  country, 
while  still  declaring  our  neutrality  as  far  as  legal  warfare  is 
concerned,  protest  against  any  and  all  barbarous  and  brutal 
acts." 

If  I  saw  a  bully  beating  a  child  or  a  woman,  (and  as 
between  Germany  and  Belgium  the  comparison  is  not  over- 
drawn), and  "protested,"  and  no  attention  was  paid  to  my 
protest,  could  I  stand  still  or  go  quietly  away,  with  the 
feeling  that  I  had  done  all  "that  may  become  a  man?"  Or 
should  I  feel  obliged  to  take  some  personal  risk  to  help  the 
victim  ?  If  the  latter  is  the  natural  and  proper  course,  for 
a  nation  as  for  an  individual,  it  is  probable  that  the  differ- 
ence between  "protesting"  and  "interfering"  is  only  that  of 
taking  one  step  instead  of  two  to  reach  a  given  goal. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  375 

The  time  to  protest  was  at  the  outset,  at  what  may  be 
called  the  "psychological"  moment,  (though  I  have  come 
to  detest  the  term,  as  used  by  Professor  Wilson  and  Pro- 
fessor Miinsterberg) ;  it  might  conceivably  have  delayed  the 
outbreak  of  hostilities,  and  even  a  short  delay  might  have 
resulted  in  the  avoidance  of  war. 

I  must  again  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  I  am  not 
alone  in  my  advocacy  of  interference.  In  support  of  my 
contention  that  there  is  "a  steadily  increasing  and  strength- 
ening trend  of  public  opinion"  in  favor  of  the  necessity 
and  propriety  of  some  form  of  intervention  on  behalf  of 
the  Allies,  even  if  it  is  only  to  give  them  our  official  moral 
support,  I  have  been  tempted  to  quote  from  many  personal 
letters  which,  since  the  appearance  of  my  pamphlet  on 
the  war,  have  reached  me  from  various  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. 

I  have  been  deterred  by  the  impossibility  of  making 
such  a  series  of  quotations  serve  my  purpose  without,  at 
the  same  time,  seeming  to  magnify  the  importance  of  the 
work  I  have  done,  which  is  unfortunately  insignificant. 
I  may  venture,  however,  to  give  a  few  extracts  from 
such  letters.  They  were  all  obviously  written  with  no 
idea  that  they  would  appear  in  print.  I  have,  therefore, 
had  to  omit  the  writers'  names,  and  have  mentioned  merely 
their  places  of  residence.  My  correspondents  have  repre- 
sented an  entirely  fair  average  of  non-hyphenated  Amer- 
icans, ranging  in  position  from  a  Justice  of  one  of  the 
highest  Courts  in  the  land,  to  clerks,  mechanics  and  work- 
ing men.  I  have  endeavored  to  omit,  as  far  as  was  con- 
sistent with  intelligibility,  all  that  was  personal,  and  to 
select  only  expressions  that  bore  upon  the  point  I  am  mak- 
ing. That  point  is,  to  reiterate,  that  the  American  people 
are,  in  the  main,  in  sympathy  with  the  views  I  have  upheld, 
and  that  now,  even  those  who  are  not  in  favor  of  actual 


376          A  TEXT-BOOK  OF{  THE  WAR 

intervention  are  eager  for  unqualified  official  expression  of 
sympathy  with  the  Allies,,  and  of  condemnation  of  Ger- 
many. It  must  be  remembered  that  while  the  pro-Ger- 
mans are  organized,  officered,  and  untiring  in  the  dissemi- 
nation of  their  views,  the  pro-Allies,  while  vastly  superior 
in  numbers — and  intelligence — have  heretofore  trusted  to 
the  righteousness  of  their  cause  and  the  common  sense  of 
the  whole  people. 
The  citations  from  the  letters  follow : 

"I  fully  agree  with  you  that  this  country  has  now  a  profound 
interest  in  the  question  that  is  being  fought  out.  Should 
Germany  succeed,  the  United  States  would  either  become  her 
vassal,  as<  by  that  time  Europe  would  be,  or  else  would  have  to 
enter  upon  a  gigantic  struggle  to  preserve  her  place  and  insti- 
tutions in  the  world."  (Philadelphia,  Pa.) 

"Fifteen  years  ago  I  heard  and  saw  in  Buenos  Ayres  un- 
mistakable evidence  that  the  German  Government  had  marked 
the  Argentine  for  its  own,  and  in  the  near  future.  Had  it  not 
been  that  England  tacitly  stood  behind  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  we 
should  have  been  at  grips  with  Germany  long  since — and  now 
we  haven't  enough  sense  to  know  when  our  own  battle  is  being 
fought  for  us.  ( Philadelphia,  Pa. ) 

"Isn't  our  government  at  Washington  the  most  despicable 
thing  that  can  be  imagined?  Without  protest  it  lets  Germany 
violate  our  treaties  and  perform  all  sorts  of  uncivilized  acts, 
and  protests  to  England  because  a  cargo  of  contraband  is  de- 
tained and  entails  a  loss  of  a  few  dollars."  ( Wallingf ord,  Pa.) 

"No  American  can  remain  true  to  the  ideals  and  principles 
of  America,  and  at  the  same  time  not  be  opposed  to  Germany. 
Meanwhile,  what  can  we  think  of  a  President  who  so  little 
understands  his  people  that  he  can  find  it  possible  to  tell  them 
that  'This  has  nothing  to  do  with  this  country.'  Who  passes 
the  Belgian  outrages  in  silence,  and  whose  first  important  ac- 
tion is  one  that  adds  to  England's  difficulties  ?  Who  lets  go  the 
one  great  opportunity  to  unite  the  two  great  branches  of  Eng- 
lish-speaking peoples,  and  who  tells  us  that  Mexicans  should 
be  left  alone  to  secure  freedom  by  cutting  each  other's  throats, 
after  he  has  himself  meddled  with  their  internal  aifairs,  and 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  377 

done  so  in  a  perfectly  futile  manner,  and  in  a  way  to  plant  in 
Mexicans  the  belief  that  we  are  governed  by  a  set  of  old 
women;  and  that  first,  last,  and  always,  we  will  seek  peace  and 
avoid  war  at  all  costs? 

"I  trust  that  these  things  do  not  cause  you  the  continuous 
sense  of  nausea  that  they  bring  to  me."  (Boston,  Mass.) 

"I  am  not — at  least  not  yet — prepared  to  support  active 
intervention  by  the  United  States,  nor  do  I  believe  it  will  be 
needed;  but  I  believe  anything  short  of  that  is  fully  war- 
ranted by  the  late,  fully  planned  international  burglary. 

"It  is  time  for  strong  men  strongly  to  express  strong  views 
regarding  this  latest  recrudescence  of  Caesarism."  (Philadel- 
phia, Pa.) 

"While  I  do  not  follow  you  so  far  as  advising  that  the  United 
States  immediately  take  a  part  in  the  conflict,  I  believe,  rather 
than  that  England  be  sacrificed  and  France  destroyed,  that  it 
will  be  the  duty  of  our  country  to  prevent  such  a  disaster  by 
every  means  in  its  power."  (Philadelphia,  Pa.) 

"I  often  hear  people  say  that  this  war  is  being  fought  for 
the  existence  of  this  or  that  race,  but  I  think  that  it  is  in  fact 
being  fought  for  an  ideal,  and  is  a  struggle  between  two  prin- 
ciples, that  of  free  self-government  by  the  people,  and  that  of 
despotic  power  centered  in  an  hereditary  ruler  and  a  military 
clique."  (Philadelphia,  Pa.) 

"There  are  many  people  who  think  like  you.  Now  is  the  time 
for  America  to  repay  to  England  and  France  the  debts  we  owe 
them.  She  should  stand  behind  them  with  men  and  money.  I 
am  an  American  of  the  fifth  generation  of  unadulterated  Ger- 
man blood,  and  I  feel  and  I  know  that  Germany  is  striking  at 
liberty  and  has  assumed  the  r6le  of  a  gigantic  freebooter.  I 
have  a  neighbor  whose  father  came  from  Prussia,  whose  grand- 
father was  a  Prussian  officer,  who  tells  me,  as  his  opinion,  that 
Germany  should  by  right  be  crushed  to  the  earth,  even  if 
America  should  have  to  help  to  do  it."  ( Kimberton,  Pa. ) 

"I  am  exactly  of  your  way  of  thinking,  although  I  am  a  warm 
peace  advocate,  and  am  estopped  from  openly  avowing  my  fear 
and  abhorrence  of  present  Teutonic  status  by  reason  of  Presi- 
dent Wilson's  plea  for  neutrality  and  my  cloth."  (Aikin, 
Maryland.) 

"I  can't  see  how  anyone  could  acknowledge  himself  so  men- 
tally debased  as  to  say  he  was  pro-German.  'Twould  be  the 


378  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  TEE  WAR 

same  as  declaring  in  favor  of  a  society  led  by  lies,  deceit,  cow- 
ardliness (putting  women  and  non-combatants  in  front  of  an 
advancing  line),  hypocrisy  and  false  pretense,  whereof  the  Ger- 
mans have  been  proved  guilty.  Long  ago  I  felt  that  I  wished 
the  United  States  would  line  up  unreservedly  with  the  Allies, 
but  I  hardly  had  the  courage  to  say  it  out  boldly.  I  was  like 
Artemus  Ward,  who  said  he  was  enthusiastically  willing  that 
his  brother-in-law  should  go  to  the  war.  Now,  were  it  possible, 
I'd  go  in  a  minute."  ( Wallingf ord,  Pa.) 

"I  am  heartily  in  accord  with  your  views.  I  think  the  stand 
our  Government  has  taken,  under  the  guidance  of  the  President, 
is  cowardly.  England  and  her  allies  are  making  a  battle  which 
is  not  only  essential  for  our  preservation,  but  for  what  is  also 
of  as  much,  if  not  greater  importance,  the  preservation  of  rep- 
resentative democratic  government.  Knowing  the  traditions  of 
the  Hohenzollern  family,  their  great  success  in  literally  steal- 
ing the  lands  of  other  countries,  and  the  enormous  military 
machine  at  their  command,  I  have  had  ever  since  this  war  be- 
gan the  greatest  anxiety  about  the  outcome  of  it.  The  under- 
lying greed  and  vaingloriousness  that  is  at  the  bottom  of  it, 
shocks  every  .sense  of  international  right  and  natural  justice 
which  I  have  been  taught  from  my  youth  up  to  respect.  If  the 
Germans  should  succeed  in  this  war,  it  will  seriously  injure 
modern  civilization  and  relegate  us  toward  barbarism,  probably 
to  be  followed  by  a  century  of  warfare. 

"We  announced  the  Monroe  Doctrine  to  prevent  the  establish- 
ing on  this  continent  of  absolutism  in  government.  If  Germany 
1  succeeds,  that  doctrine  will  become  a  dream  of  the  past.  If  it 
is  worth  fighting  for,  now  is  the  time  to  fight  for  it.  It  was 
mere  child's  play  for  our  Government  to  become  a  party  to  the 
Hague  Conventions  and  then  make  no  effort  to  maintain  them. 
We  certainly  have  a  right  to  make  a  formal  protest  against  such 
flagrant  violations  of  the  provisions  of  those  conventions  as 
Germany  has  committed  in  this  war.  Having  protested,  we 
should  back  the  protest  up  in  every  way  in  our  power  by  assist- 
ing in  punishing  that  government,  which,  after  becoming  a 
party  to  them,  has  flouted  us  by  disregarding  them.  I  am  glad 
to  find  from/  your  book,  and  from  conversation  with  others, 
that  there  are  more  and  more  of  our  people  taking  this  view 
every  day.  As  circumstanced,  we  could  not  do  very  much  in  a 
forceful  way.  Our  Army  is  too  small  to  amount  to  anything, 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  379 

and  President  Wilson  is  going  to  see  to  it  that  it  does  not 
become  any  stronger.  Our  Navy  could  be  of  material  use.  The 
mere  fact,  however,  that  we  had  joined  in  with  the  Allies  in 
this  war  would,  in  my  opinion,  cause  all  the  now  hesitating 
neutral  governments  in  Europe  to  cast  in  their  lot  with  the 
Allies,  and  that  soon  would  not  only  put  an  end  to  this  most 
unjustifiable  and  unrighteous  war,  but  would  also  make  an  end 
of  Prussian  militarism  and  the  bullying  of  small  nations  which 
had  not  the  strength  to  protect  themselves. 

"I  cannot  help  but  believe  that  this  will  finally  be  the  out- 
come of  the  war;  but  why  should  we  not  help  to  bring  it  about 
and  thereby  save  many  human  lives  and  valuable  property  that 
otherwise  will  be  destroyed  and  wasted?"  (Philadelphia,  Pa.) 

"I  have  already  read  your  pamphlet  with  great  interest  and 
with  almost  entire  agreement;  1  could  omit  the  'almost'  except 
for  the  fact  that  I  think  intervention  by  us  now,  or  in  the  near 
future,  is  hardly  possible,  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  our  unpre- 
paredness  is  so  marked.  I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any 
danger  of  Germany's  emerging  victoriously  for  a  long  time  to 
come,  if  ever,  and  I  feel  that  six  months  or  a  year  could  very 
well  be  spent  by  us  in  getting  the  military  and  naval  forces 
of  the  country  into  some  kind  of  shape,  when  we  would  be  in  a 
position  to  command  attention  to  any  remonstrances  that  we 
might  address  to  Germany.  I  feel  that  our  position  is  one 
which  may  well  cause  us  anxiety.  I  have  no  doubt  whatever 
that  the  country  is  full  of  German  spies  and  secret  agents,  and 
I  feel  that  all  our  ships  and  military  stores  should  be  guarded 
with  extreme  care  and  vigilance."  (Philadelphia,  Pa.) 

"Permit  me,  though  an  entire  stranger  to  you,  to  express  my 
cordial  sympathy  with,  and  acquiescence  in  your  views  regard- 
ing our  right  attitude  and  duty  as  a  nation  in  this  present 
war."  (New  York,  N.  Y.) 

"I  think  you  have  done  a  real  service  in  bringing  together 
in  one  place  facts  which  speak  for  themselves.  It  seems  abso- 
lutely incredible  that  in  a  civilized  world  we  should  have  the 
spectacle  of  America  sending  supplies  to  Belgium  in  conse- 
quence of  Germany's  devastation,  while  at  the  same  time  Ger- 
many is  taking  away  from  Belgium  what  little  she  has  left." 

(Philadelphia,  Pa.) 


380  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

I  submit  that,  if  my  statements  as  to  the  character  of 
the  writers  of  the  above  paragraphs,  and  as  to  their  geo- 
graphical distribution  are  accepted  as  truthful,  and  if  I  am 
furthermore  believed  when  I  say  that  they  could  be  multi- 
plied many  times  over  from  other  letters  sent  me  spon- 
taneously, they  must  be  given  some  weight  in  estimating 
the  present  state  of  American  public  opinion.  And  they 
are  entitled  to  still  more  consideration  when  it  is  remem- 
bered that  I  am  a  single  inconspicuous  citizen  of  this  Ee- 
public,  without  official  or  public  position,  and  by  no  means 
well  known,  even  by  name,  to  the  vast  majority  of  my 
fellow-citizens. 

In  further  support  of  my  assertion  that  I  am  not  alone 
in  my  advocacy  of  interference  I  am  permitted  to  publish 
here  a  poem  by  a  young  lady,  Miss  Laura  Armistead  Car- 
ter, of  Baltimore.  I  am  greatly  mistaken  if  the  fire  and 
pathos  of  her  verse  do  not  voice  the  sentiments  of  tens  of 
thousands  of  Americans  yet  unheard  from. 

NEUTRAL. 

"WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  August  5,  1914. 
"Whereas  a  state  of  war  unhappily  exists     *     *     and 
whereas  the  laws  and  treaties  of  the  United  States     *     * 
impose    the    duty    of    an    impartial    neutrality.      *      * 
Therefore"— 

"We  have  no  pretext  for  declaring  war/' 

No  pretext — true,  but  0  America ! 

There  is  a  Cause — thy  cause  as  well  as  theirs 

Who  fight  thy  battles  for  thee  oversea ! 

Dost  thou  do  well  to  draw  thy  garments  clear 

The  while  the  very  things  thou  standest  for 

Are  trembling  in  the  balance  ?    Shall  the  earth 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  381 

Eemain  the  gainer  for  the  centuries 

Of  toilsome  groping  upward — Justify 

Him,  Who  created?    Shall  Democracy, 

Gazing  men  frank  and  fearless  in  the  eyes, 

Still  lead  her  peaceful  cohorts  down  the  years 

To  ever  widening  freedom  ?    Shall  our  Chiefs 

Be  Prophets,  Sages,  Servers  of  their  kind — 

'Gainst  pestilence  and  ignorance  our  wars — 

Our  meed  of  victory — the  Common  Good? 

Or  shall  the  shadow  of  the  Iron  Hand 

Blacken  the  earth?    Shall  Mediaeval  night 

Engulf  our  dawn  ? — Torn  from  a  Lister's  hand 

The  knife  goes  back  to  Cain ! — shall  all  we  piled, 

Stone  after  stone  for  painful  centuries, 

Fall  crashing  into  chaos,  while  the  guns 

Roar  sullen  requiem?    Earth  an  armed  camp — 

"Might"  once  more  "right !"— 0  Country  of  the  Free 

Is  this  no  cause  of  thine  ? 
And  think  not  that  thyself  shalt  so  escape ! 
The  ashes  of  Louvain  that  cry  to  God, 
The  blood  of  "neutral  Belgium,"  falling  bomb, 
And  floating  death  that  blocks  the  ocean  lanes, 
With  treaties  violate  and  oaths  forsworn 
Bear  ominous  witness  to  that  prophet  voice : 
"Thou  art  the  next  in  line !"    Look,  look,  beyond ! 
As  he  had  looked,  who  gave  that  liberty 
Thou  dost  imperil.    Judge  as  he,  then  rise 
As  he,  far-sighted,  wise,  deliberate 
Were  he  on  earth  to-day  would  bid  thee  rise ! 
Unfurl  the  silver  stars ! — unsheathe  the  sword ! — 
And  by  the  spirit  of  thy  Washington 
Join  hands  with  England!    Up !  then — Not  in  hate, 
And  with  no  shout  of  martial  ecstasy, 
But  in  the  name  of  Him,  the  Prince  of  Peace, 


382  A  TEXT-BOOK  OFt  THE  WAR 

Whose  kingdom  totters — stern  and  sorrowful, 
Facing  the  issue — while  the  balance  sways — 
To  arms !     Columbia ! — Lest  a  world  be  lost !" 
And,  again  from  a  young  lady,  Miss  Helen  Gray  Cone 

(227),  I  may  quote  the  last  stanza  of  a  poem  entitled 

"A  Chant  of  Love  for  England :" 

"Shatter  her  beauteous  breast  ye  may; 
The  Spirit  of  England  none  can  slay! 
Dash  the  bomb  on  the  dome  of  Paul's, — 
Deem  ye  the  fame  of  the  Admiral  falls  ? 
Pry  the  stone  from  the  chancel  floor, — 
Dream  ye  that  Shakespeare  shall  live  no  more  ? 

Where  is  the  giant  shot  that  kills 
Wordsworth  walking  the  old  green  hills? 
Trample  the  red  rose  on  the  ground, — 
Keats  is  Beauty  while  earth  spins  round ! 
Bind  her,  grind  her,  burn  her  with  fire, 
Cast  her  ashes  into  the  sea, — 
She  shall  escape,  she  shall  aspire, 
She  shall  arise  to  make  men  free; 
She  shall  arise  in  a  sacred  scorn, 
Lighting  the  lives  that  are  yet  unborn; 
Spirit  supernal,  Splendor  eternal, 

ENGLAND  I" 

There  are  many  of  us  who  are  called  "anglomaniacs" 
in  these  days.  But  if  to  believe  in  the  clean  hands  of  Eng- 
land in  this  war,  to  feel  that  she  and  the  Allies  are  fight- 
ing the  battle  of  democratic  civilization  against  a  military 
autocracy  that  has  thrust  the  fight  upon  them  and  has 
conquest  for  its  purpose,  to  be  profoundly  convinced  that 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  383 

they  are  as  truly  fighting  our  battles  as  if  we  all  were  parts 
of  the  same  republic,  is  to  be  an  anglomaniac  I  am  glad 
to  be  so  classed.  And  furthermore,  apart  from  the  ques- 
tions of  right  and  wrong  involved,  I  deeply  sympathize 
with  the  sentiment  that,  when  displayed,  is  apt  to  elicit 
the  term  as  one  of  reproach.  I  am  not  ashamed  of  a  feel- 
ing that  I  know  is  shared  with  innumerable  Americans, 
the  feeling  that,  after  Independence  Hall,  the  most  prec- 
ious edifice  in  the  world  to  Anglo-Saxons,  is  Westminster 
Abbey.  It  was  long  ago  said  that  to  see  an  American 
enter  it  for  the  first  time  was  to  witness  an  unconscious 
display  of  profound  reverence.  Great  Britain  is  filled  with 
shrines  of  scarcely  less  significance  to  our  people. 

Knowing  what  we  now  know  of  the  fate  of  Louvain,  of 
Eheims,  of  Dinant,  can  any  American  read  with  indiffer- 
ence the  open  threat  as  to  the  destruction  of  "the  nest  of 
hypocrisy  on  the  Thames";  the  boastful  assertion  by  a 
"learned  man"  (in  the  employ  of  the  Berlin  government, 
of  course,)  that  they  would  show  "no  respect  for  the  tomb- 
stones of  Shakespeare,  Newton  and  Faraday"  ? 

When  the  war  began  this  would  have  been  regarded  as 
the  excited  vaporings  of  an  irresponsible.  In  the  grim 
light  of  what  has  been  we  should  all  realize  what  would 
be  if  the  war  gave  Germany  the  power  to  execute  her 
threats. 

This,  it  seems  to  me,  is  no  time  for  hair-splitting.  It 
is  no  time  for  Americans  to  aid  the  Germans  by  recalling 
every  case  of  difference  of  opinion  between  us  and  Great 
Britain.  It  is  no  time  for  reviewing  and  balancing  the 
evidence  as  to  the  justice  of  our  respective  claims  on  each 
occasion.  All  this  is  now  to  give  help  and  comfort  to  the 
pro-German  conspirators,  whose  chief  hope  is  to  awaken 
or  to  produce  an  anti-British  sentiment.  It  all  ignores 
the  vital;  the  basic  facts  of  the  present  situation.  It  is 


384  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF,  THE  WAR 

ungenerous  and  unworthy;  and  it  is  no  reply  to  that 
statement  to  point  out  instances  when  Great  Britain  has 
acted  ungenerously  or  unworthily.  If  I  believed  that  in 
every  case  when  her  and  our  views  had  differed  and  when 
there  had  been  friction  between  us,  we  were  absolutely 
right  and  she  was  entirely  in  the  wrong,  it  would  not  have 
a  feather's  weight  of  influence  upon  my  present  attitude. 

Either  the  Allies  are  imperiling  their  very  existence  in 
the  defense  of  principles  which  we  are,  in  times  of  peace, 
proud  to  call  "American,"  or  they  are  not.  Those  who 
believe  they  are  not,  are,  of  course,  at  liberty  to  base  their 
speech  and  actions  on  such  belief. 

But  those  who  agree,  as  do  practically  all  Americans  to 
whom  the  issue  is  squarely  presented,  that  what  they  are 
fighting  for  includes  the  essentials  of  what  this  country 
stands  for,  should  not  lessen  the  effectiveness  of  their  sup- 
port by  being  drawn  into  discussions  of  the  war  of  1812, 
or  of  the  Canadian  boundary  line.  If  they  heartily  dis- 
approve of  the  official  attitude  of  our  present  administra- 
tion they  should  not  be  deterred  from  saying  so  by  the 
fear  of  being  called  "unpatriotic."  And  if  their  sym- 
pathies are  with  the  Allies,  including  Great  Britain,  they 
should  be  as  outspoken  as  it  is  their  nature  to  be  regard- 
less of  the  feeble  and  really  meaningless  accusation  that 
they  are  "anglomaniacs." 

If,  as  to  the  indications  to-day,  I  misinterpret  the  spirit 
of  America,  if  I  am  wrong  and  my  critics,  who  advocate 
only  a  protest,  are  right,  let  us  in  Heaven's  name,  with  a 
dozen  adequate  reasons  staring  us  in  the  face,  at  least 
protest.  And  if  we  cannot  do  it  through  our  official  rep- 
resentatives at  Washington,  let  us  do  it  individually  or 
collectively,  through  whatever  channels  may  be  open  to  us. 
If  ever  America  had  cause  to  be  grateful  to  a  free  press 
it  has  been  in  the  last  six  months.  There  will  be  no  sup- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  385 

pression  of  candid  opinion,  no  matter  how  "spare  and 
bare  and  lean  and  mean"  the  ideals  of  neutrality  held  at 
Washington. 

Mr.  Paul  Fuller,  in  an  article  entitled  "Legal  Neu- 
trality Versus  Moral  Neutrality"  (228),  has  most  clearly 
and  convincingly  set  forth  the  principles  involved  in  our 
neutrality  and  likewise  the  widespread  sentiment  of  re- 
gret that  the  government  has  failed  so  lamentably  to  realize 
and  act  upon  its  highest  duty.  He  begins  by  noting  that 
neutrality  is  not  in  itself  a  virtue;  it  is  not  a  condition  to 
be  proud  of ;  rather  does  it  require  explanation,  not  to  say 
apology.  It  is,  he  says,  "at  best  a  counsel  of  prudence, 
never  a  counsel  of  perfection.  lago  was  strictly  neutral 
when  he  mused  on  the  coming  encounter  of  Cassio  and 
Eoderigo:  'whether  he  kill  Cassio,  or  Cassio  him,  either 
way  makes  my  gain/ ''  They  were  neutrals  of  whom  St. 
John  write :  "Because  thou  art  lukewarm  and  neither  cold 
nor  hot  I  will  spew  thee  out  of  my  mouth."  He  gives  various 
definitions  of  neutrality  and  shows  beyond  peradventure 
that  under  the  strictest  of  them  there  is  nothing  to  war- 
rant the  absurd  request  of  the  President  that  our  neu- 
trality be  extended  to  "thought  as  well  as  action,"  a  re- 
quest, I  may  note,  that  has  excited,  as  a  rule,  either  de- 
rision or  resentment.  He  says,  quoting  a  writer  on  inter- 
national law,  "Neutrality  is  not  the  synonym  of  indiffer- 
ence. 

"A  state  may  have  lively  sympathy  for  one  of  the  belliger- 
ents, and  give  frank  expression  of  its  dissatisfaction  with  the 
actions  of  the  other,  and  yet  remain  neutral.  To  have  and 
express  an  opinion  upon  the  justice  or  injustice  of  a  cause  or 
of  a  line  of  political  conduct  is  not  to  take  part  in  the  war; 
and  this  expression  is  not  an  infraction  of  the  duties  of  neu- 
trals." 

25 


386  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF(  THE  WAR 

He  calls  attention  to  the  impossibility  of  compliance 
with  Mr.  Wilson's  request,  and  adds : 

"Every  day  of  repression  simply  concentrates  the  unexpressed 
sentiment  and  forebodes  an  explosion.  We  appeal  to  the  Presi- 
dent to  look  over  the  field  again,  to  consider  anew  the  baleful 
influence  upon  the  cause  of  peace,  upon  the  enlightenment  of 
nations,  upon  the  mitigation  of  the  horrors  of  war,  of  such  a 
proceeding  as  the  invasion  and  subsequent  devastation  of  an 
unoffending  country.  .  .  . 

"He  will  find  that  it  overshadows  all  other  considerations 
concerning  this  war.  There  may  still  be  differences  of  opinion 
as  to  whether  civilization  and  advancement  are  best  to  be 
served  by  the  European  hegemony  of  a  vast  military  organiza- 
tion, or  by  the  unimpeded  progress  of  such  democracy  and  rep- 
resentative government  as  rules  in  England  or  in  France;  but 
he  will  find  throughout  the  breadth  of  the  land  no  apology,  no 
tolerance  for  the  act  of  tyrannical  assault  by  which  the  war 
was  initiated  and  the  territory  of  Belgium  made  the  unwilling 
field  of  the  most  devastating  conflict  of  all  time.  .  .  . 

"The  country  must  not  be  silent,  cannot  be  silent,  with  honor 
— in  fact,  it  has  already  spoken.  But  it  would  be  glad  to  have 
its  scattered  voices  concentrated  in  the  voice  of  the  chief  mag- 
istrate, that  the  world  may  know  unmistakably  how  America 
stands  with  reference  to  respect  for  the  noblest  dictates  of  inter- 
national justice." 

Once  again  he  punctures  the  bubble  of  Presidential 
fancy,  the  idea  that  by  doing  nothing  and  saying  nothing 
(except  when  it  is  a  question  of  dollars)  he  will  be  chosen 
as  arbiter  of  the  destinies  of  Europe  and  of  the  world  when 
the  peace  parleys  begin.  Mr.  Fuller  says : 

"If  any  one  harbors  the  delusion  that  closing  our  eyes  to  ad- 
mitted repudiations  of  international  law  will  enhance  our  in- 
fluence with  the  contestants  in  the  day  when  peace  will  follow 
exhaustion,  let  him  study  anew  the  parleys  that  closed  the 
Franco-Prussian  war  of  1870,  and  be  convinced  that  the  unre- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  387 

buked  violator  of  neutral   Belgium  will  admit  of   no  outside 
counsels  as  to  the  distribution  of  his  spoils. 

"On  the  other  hand,  what  right  have  we  to  expect  that  the 
Allies  will  in  the  day  of  their  blood-bought  triumph  turn  for  an 
impartial  judgment  and  for  a  wise  balancing  of  the  arguments 
regarding  the  compensation  due  to  Belgium,  to  the  great  demo- 
cratic republic  which  paralyzed  its  own  conscience  and  looked 
with  dumb  indifference  upon  the  unexcused  violation  of  her 
soil?" 

Mr.  Fuller  is  just  one  among  millions  of  Americans 
who  sadly  realize  that  Mr.  Wilson,  by  his  futile  and  un- 
worthy efforts  to  choke  back  opinion  upon  all  the  great 
moral  issues  of  the  war,  combined  with  his  insistent 
declarations,  inquiries  and  protests  upon  all  the  commer- 
cial questions  raised,  has  hopelessly  damaged,  not  only  his 
own  reputation — that  might  be  borne  philosophically— but 
also,  alas,  the  reputation  of  this  country  as  a  defender  and 
upholder  of  liberty  and  of  international  rights. 

Normal  Angell  says:  (229) 

"If  there  be  any  truth  in  the  English  view  .  .  .  that  this 
war  is  the  outcome  of  a  national  philosophy  in  Germany  which 
is  the  work  of  half  a  dozen  writers  and  a  dozen  university  pro- 
fessors— and  I  think  that  there  is  something  at  least  in  that 
view,  however  much  it  may  have  been  exaggerated— what  serv- 
ice may  not  an  equivalent  number  of  writers  and  professors  in 
America  do  for  their  country  and  for  the  world  at  large,  by 
exposing  the  fallacies  of  the  false  philosophy  and  giving  to  the 
active  minds  of  their  country  the  foundations  of  the  true  phil- 
osophy? Could  an  American  ask  for  a  better  place  for  his 
country  in  the  future  history  of  this  period  than  that  it  should 
be  said:  The  philosophy  which  played  so  large  a  part  in  pro- 
voking the  world  war  of  the  twentieth  century  came  mainly 
from  the  universities  of  Germany;  but  the  philosophy  which 
played  the  largest  part  in  the  world  peace  which  mankind  has 
since  enjoyed  came  mainly  from  the  universities  of  America/  " 


388  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

A  letter  written  by  an  American  living  abroad  (230) 
expresses  the  feeling  of  tens  of  thousands  of  Americans 
living  at  home: 

"As  several  of  your  correspondents  have  pointed  out,  the 
attitude  of  the  United  States  baffles  ordinary  comprehension, 
especially  considering  the  fact  that  the  sister  Republic  of 
France,  and  even  before — America  will  never  forget  Lafayette — 
was  their  old  ally.  Putting  all  questions  of  Great  Britain  aside, 
as  may  well  be  done,  here  was  the  spectacle  of  a  long  premedi- 
tated, wholly  unprovoked  attack  on  two  democracies — the 
crowned  republic  of  Belgium,  and  France — by  a  Power  which 
since  1860  has  acted  as  the  bully  of  Europe,  with  hopes  of  en- 
larging its  sphere  of  tyranny  and  rapine  to  embrace  the  whole 
world.  The  Belgian  representatives  went  to  Washington  to 
report  on  the  outrages  of  the  Germans  in  Belgium.  They  were 
kindly  received,  and  the  spokesman  of  the  States  read  them  a 
little  homily  about  justice  in  the  abstract — and  that  was  all! 
The  heart  of  the  American  people  is  with  the  victims  of  the 
brutal  regime  at  Berlin,  but  the  politicians  talk  mildly  of  the 
virtues  of  neutrality!  It  is  unfortunate,  indeed,  that  the  really 
representative  men  of  the  great  Republic  are  not  in  a  position 
to  assist  their  country  to  play  the  part  destined  for  a  Power 
which  has  ever  stood  forward  as  the  champion  of  the  oppressed. 

"Six  months  ago  Belgium  was  one  of  the  happiest  and  most 
prosperous  countries  in  Europe.  Now  it  is  a  ruin;  its  people 
have  been  murdered,  driven  into  exile  and  brought  to  poverty — 
a  country  this  of  free  institutions,  a  land  where  learning  and 
civilization,  material  advance  and  enlightenment  have  marched 
together.  The  States  are  pledged  by  the  honor  of  their  name, 
their  past  traditions,  apart  entirely  from  treaties,  to  which 
their  signature  has  been  appended,  to  stand  for  the  Right  of 
Humanity — the  common  right  to  live  and  work.  That  right 
has  been  trampled  in  the  mud.  The  criminal  hooliganism 
clothed  in  nauseous  hypocrisy  which  is  the  main  characteristic 
of  the  German  policy  has  affronted  every  code  on  which  the 
American  power  is  based,  and  America,  through  its  repre- 
sentatives of  the  day,  talks  of  neutrality  and  stands  aside! 
America  keeps  its  Ambassador  in  Berlin!  Berlin  has  outraged 
every  moral  sense,  every  canon  of  truth,  every  law — human 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  389 

and  divine.  There  can  be  no  confusing  of  the  issue.  Appar- 
ently America  would  have  looked  on  with  supreme  impassive- 
ness  if  France — France  which  has  held  the  torch  of  civilization 
high  through  past  ages',  when  the  rest  of  Europe  was  plunged 
in  barbarism — had  been  crushed  under  the  iron  heel. 

"Maybe  there  is  yet  a  mighty  r6le  for  America  to  play,  not 
as  presiding  genius  at  the  Peace,  for  the  Allies  will  stand  in 
no  need  of  outside  assistance.  It  is  late,  indeed,  but  even  the 
Saturday  in  the  week  of  the  world  is  good  for  action,  though 
the  opportunity  has  been  dallied  with.  The  real  occasion  was 
in  the  days  of  last  summer,  when  the  crime  of  all  time  was 
perpetrated,  when  a  little  nation  was  fighting — fighting  for 
what?  Just  the  right  to  live,  to  guard  its  own,  to  be  at  peace. 
And  when  the  arch-impostor  who  has  brought  the  German 
name  to  ignomy  and  has  disgraced  a  dynasty,  first  threw  his 
armies  at  his  little  foe,  that  was  the  time  when  America  might 
have  spoken  with  a  voice  which  would  have  roused  the  entire 
world,  declaring  the  infamy  of  the  crime  of  the  Hohenzollern 
crew.  It  might  not  have  stopped  the  war,  but  it  would  have 
curtailed  the  chances  of  mischief  on  the  part  of  the  criminal 
dolts  of  the  Wilhelmstrasse.  It  would  have  shown  to  all  who 
pass  down  the  world's  highway  that  the  honor  of  America  is  as 
high  now  as  in  1898,  when  it  freed  Cuba.  There  is  yet  time. 
Or  is  it  to  be  written  down  finally  in  the  annals  of  history  that 
America  could  not  do  its  duty  because  another  did  not  stand 
in  the  place  of  power?" 

A  very  significant  illustration  of  American  feeling  as 
to  the  administration's  attitude  is  afforded  in  the  follow- 
ing account  of  the  proceedings  at  a  meeting  of  the  Demo- 
cratic Club  of  Philadelphia.  (231)  Mr.  Cadwalader  is  one 
of  the  leading  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  a  distinguished 
member  of  the  bar,  a  life-long  Democrat,  and  a  former 
official  representative  in  this  city  of  a  Democratic  president : 

"John  Cadwalader  last  night,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Democratic 
Club,  after  a  denunciation  of  the  German  nation  and  of  Em- 
peror William,  asked  the  club  to  express  to  President  Wilson 


390  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

by  a  resolution  its  deep  regret  that  he  should  have  sent  Em- 
peror William  the  congratulations  of  the  American  people  on 
his  birthday. 

"In  the  course  of  his  speech  Mr.  Cadwalader  said  that  in 
his  opinion  the  German  nation  had  withdrawn  completely  from 
the  family  of  civilized  nations  and  had  rendered  all  friendly  in- 
tercourse impossible  by  its  attitude  in  regard  to  its  treaties. 
Germany  had  served  notice  on  all  nations  that  in  the  future  it 
would  follow  as  its  guide,  not  its  honor  and  sworn  word,  but  its 
inclination  and  advantage  which  it  was  pleased  to  call  'its 
necessity.'  No  nation  in  the  future  could  make  a  treaty  with 
Germany  except  under  the  assurance  that  when  Germany 
pleased  it  would  disregard  such  treaty.  Emperor  William  was 
the  representative  of  the  German  nation,  and  in  congratulating 
him  President  Wilson  was  congratulating  the  embodiment  of 
the  spirit  which  was  responsible  for  the  most  hideous  war  in 
history. 

"Every  right-thinking  American  would  deplore  the  fact  that 
the  American  people,  he  said — for  this  was  not  a  personal  con- 
gratulation, but  a  congratulation  from  the  American  nation — 
should  congratulate  the  trampler  of  Belgium  that  another  year 
had  been  added  to  his  life." 

As  this  page  is  written  the  latest  important  interna- 
tional occurrence  is  the  promulgation  of  an  order  by  the 
German  Admiralty  declaring  the  waters  around  the  Brit- 
ish coasts  "a  war  zone."  It  is  not  necessary  here  and  now 
to  discuss  the  extraordinary  and  unprecedented  character 
of  this  action.  It  may  have  been  revoked,  modified,  or 
denied  long  before  this  goes  to  print.  But — I  am  seeking 
an  answer  to  the  query  as  to  the  effect  upon  our  people  of 
the  official  attitude  of  this  government  on  war  questions. 
I,  therefore,  quote  here  (232)  part  of  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Samuel  Dickson,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Philadelphia  Bar, 
and  all  his  life  a  Democrat  of  national  reputation: 

"It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  State  Department  at  Washington 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  391 

will  not  tamely  acquiesce  in  the  amazing  proclamation  by  the 
German  Admiralty.  Frederick  R.  Coudert,  of  New  York,  has 
very,  very  justly  said,  that  it  could  be  considered  an  act  of  hos- 
tility, and  that  there  can  be  no  justification  for  this  action. 

"From  the  beginning  the  United  States  Government  always 
maintained  the  right  to  treat  the  open  sea  as  a  public  highway, 
and  refused  to  acquiesce  in  one  attempt  after  another  to  estab- 
lish a  mare  olausum.  It  refused  to  submit  to  an  imposition  of 
the  Sound  dues  by  Denmark,  or  to  recognize  the  Baltic  as  a 
closed  sea.  It  refused  to  pay  tribute  to  the  Barbary  Powers 
for  the  privilege  of  navigating  the  Mediterranean,  and  gave 
notice  to  Russia  that  it  would  disregard  the  claim  to  make  the 
North  Pacific  a  mare  clausum,  so  that  Mr.  Wheaton,  in  sum- 
ming up  the  discussion  maintains:  'In  order  to  establish  the 
claim  of  a  particular  nation  to  a  right  of  property  in  the  sea, 
that  nation  must  obtain  and  keep  possession  of  it,  which  is  im- 
possible, and,  in  any  event,  the  sea  is  an  element  which  belongs 
equally  to  all  men,  like  the  air;  consequently,  as  it  cannot  be- 
come the  exclusive  property  of  any  nation,  the  use  of  the  sea 
remains  open  and  common  to  all  mankind.'  (Lawrence's 
Wheaton,  p.  341.) 

"No  one  has  ever  pretended  to  assert  a  claim  to  control  the 
navigation  of  the  North  Sea,  and  Germany  has  no  more  right 
'to  plant  mines  in  the  open  sea  between  Great  Britain  and  Bel- 
gium and  France  than  she  would  have  to  do  so  in  Delaware  Bay, 
or  than  a  property  owner,  who  was  annoyed  by  automobiles, 
would  have  to  plant  torpedoes  in  a  turnpike. 

"The  right  to  plant  mines  as  a  defense  to  a  harbor,  from 
which  all  vessels  might  lawfully  be  excluded,  is  one  thing,  but 
to  destroy  the  use  of  the  open  sea  as  a  highway,  by  sowing 
mines  which  might  indeed  destroy  British  ships,  but  might  also 
destroy  American  ships,  is  an  act  of  hostility  which,  if  persisted 
in,  would  constitute  a  casus  ~belli,  and  if  we  had  Mr.  Webster, 
or  Mr.  Marcey,  or  Mr.  Evarts  in  Washington  as  Secretary  of 
State,  prompt  notice  would  be  given  that  for  any  damage  done 
Germany  would  be  held  responsible." 

I  have  not  time  to  look  far  afield  for  expressions  of 
American  opinion  on  this  latest  example  of  German  ruth- 


392  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

lessness,  and,  I  think  I  may  add,  of  blundering.  The  ques- 
tion comes  up  at  the  same  time  with  that  of  the  use  of 
the  American  flag  by  belligerents.  The  latter  is  one,  of 
which  either  of  two  views  may  perhaps  be  taken  and  up- 
held. The  former,  the  "war  zone"  order,  is,  in  purpose  and 
intent  and  therefore  in  possibility,  to  be  classed  with  the 
invasion  and  destruction  of  Belgium,  on  the  plea  of  "mili- 
tary necessity."  But  after  all  it  is,  from  the  perverted 
German  standpoint,  logical.  If  the  houses,  and  shrines, 
the  people  and  property,  the  women  and  children  of  one 
neutral  may,  without  the  expressed  disapproval  of  all  neu- 
trals, be  destroyed,  why  not  the  ships,  the  mails,  the  pas- 
sengers, of  another  neutral  ? 

Our  government's  action  in  this  case  has  at  last  put  on 
the  semblance  of  a  firm  stand  for  the  rights,  at  least  of 
our  own  citizens. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  insulting  comments  of  the 
German  press  (pp.  395,  400-01),  and  the  insolent  intima- 
tion of  Count  Eeventlow  (the  German  "naval  expert"),  that 
our  government  in  case  of  trouble  would  not  find  a  united 
people  behind  it  (p.  397),  will  only  stiffen  its  resolution. 
It  is  also  to  be  hoped  that  Count  Reventlow's  opinion  is 
based  on  the  same  sort  of  reports  from  German  spies,  hire- 
lings, emissaries  and  "diplomats,"  as  those  which  led  Ber- 
lin to  believe  last  July  that  the  outbreak  of  war  would  be 
followed  by  serious  trouble  between  England  and  Ireland, 
between  England  and  her  Indian  subjects,  between  Can- 
ada and  the  United  States ! 

In  spite  of  mass  meetings,  resolutions,  swaggering 
threats,  and  insidious  attempts  at  pro-German  legislation, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  up  to  this  time  our  German- 
Americans  have  been  publicly  represented  only  by  those 
who  are  Germans  at  heart,  I  still  hope  that  as  they  come 
to  know  the  situation,  to  understand  the  real  Germany  of 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  393 

to-day,  to  differentiate  between  the  autocratic  ideals  of 
Prussia  and  those  which  embody  the  genuine  and  lasting 
welfare  of  the  German  people,  they  will  be  found — should 
a  break  come — lined  up  on  the  side  of  their  adopted  coun- 
try. There  are  reasons  for  doubt  (see  Chapter  X),  but 
no  reason  for  hopelessness. 

I  subjoin  two  editorial  expressions  which  are  in  line, 
so  far  as  I  can  now  learn,  with  what  is  being  said  in  every 
part  of  this  country.  (233) 

"A  familiar  passage  in  Scripture  tells  how  Agur,  the  son  of 
Jakeh,  acknowledged  himself  baffled  by  the  mysteries  of  exist- 
ence. The  record  runs: 

"  'There  be  three  things  which  are  too  wonderful  for  me,  yea, 
four,  which  I  know  not: 

"  'The  way  of  an  eagle  in  the  air,  the  way  of  a  serpent  upon 
a  rock,  the  way  of  a  ship  in  the  midst  of  the  sea  and  the  way  of 
a  man  with  a  maid.' 

"Had  he  lived  until  this  time  he  might  have  added  a  fifth 
marvel — the  way  of  Germany  in  making  war.  That  is  a  system 
which  defies  logic  and  mocks  at  understanding.  The  newspapers 
of  the  empire  now  admit  that  the  world's  opinion  is  hostile  to 
it,  but  the  acknowledgment  is  less  singular  than  the  air  of  sur- 
prise with  which  it  is  made.  Germany  is  amazed,  as  well  as 
incensed,  that  other  countries  have  not  recognized  the  rape  of 
Belgium  as  an  evidence  of  the  highest  civilization  and  the  most 
exacting  morality. 

"But  the  most  recent  development  of  the  German  grand 
strategy  seems  to  be  quite  irreconcilable  with  governmental  in- 
telligence. The  imperial  decree  making  all  of  the  waters  sur- 
rounding the  British  isles  a  'war  zone,'  and  threatening  to 
destroy  ships  and  crews  found  therein  after  February  18th, 
whether  they  be  English  or  neutral,  is  surely  the  maddest  pro- 
posal ever  put  forth  by  a  civilized  nation. 

"Earlier  in  the  war  other  peoples  would  have  been  shocked  by 
the  declaration  that  enemy  merchant  ships  would  be  torpedoed 
and  sunk,  and  their  crews  drowned,  in  defiance  of  the  plainest 
rules  of  warfare.  But  other  procedure  has  prepared  the  world 


394  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

for  the  purpose  genially  outlined  by  the  Kreuz  Zeitung,  of 
Berlin: 

"  'England  and  France  cannot  claim  from  us  in  all  circum- 
stances and  without  exceptions  the  benevolent  treatment  which 
we  hitherto  have  accorded  merchant  ships.  As  England  has  not 
hesitated  to  strew  the  North  Sea  with  mines,  so  shall  we  not 
refrain  from  torpedoing  English  merchant  ships  simply  be- 
cause the  lives  of  a  few  are  thereby  endangered.' 

"This  excessively  efficient  method  of  warfare,  however,  is  one 
that  most  concerns  England  and  France.  The  interest  of  the 
United  States  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  threat  is  aimed  'emphat- 
ically at  neutral  shipping.  The  decree  says: 

"  'Neutrals  are  warned  against  further  entrusting  crews,  pas- 
sengers and  wares  to  such  (English  and  French)  ships.  Their 
attention  is  called  to  the  fact  that  it  is  advisable  for  their  ships 
to  avoid  entering  this  area,  for,  even  though  the  German  naval 
forces  have  instruction  to  avoid  violence  to  neutral  ships  in  so 
far  as  they  are  recognizable,  in  view  of  the  misuse  of  neutral 
flags  ordered  by  the  British  government,  and  the  contingencies 
of  naval  warfare,  their  becoming  victims  of  torpedoes  directed 
against  the  enemy's  ships  cannot  always  be  averted.' 

"As  plainly  as  words  could  state  it,  this  is  a  warning  that 
American  and  other  neutral  vessels  may  be  sunk  by  German  sub- 
marines under  'misapprehension,'  and  that  Germany  will  repu- 
diate responsibility  therefor.  She  might  regret  such  contin- 
gencies, but  intimates  that  'military  necessity*  outweighs  any 
rights  of  neutrals — as  she  has  already  shown  in  other  notable 
instances. 

"Neutral  nations  were  loath  to  accept  this  sinister  meaning 
of  the  order  when  it  was  first  published;  but  five  days  later  the 
intent  was  emphasized  by  Herr  von  Jagow,  the  imperial  minis- 
ter of  foreign  affairs.  In  a  formaj  statement  to  the  Associated 
Press,  he  declared: 

"  'Neutral  ships',  even  without  taking  into  account  the  un- 
avoidable accidents  of  war,  run  the  risk  of  being  mistaken  for 
hostile  merchant  ships  and  of  falling  victims  to  attacks  intended 
for  these  ships.  Neutral  ships,  therefore,  are  urgently  warned 
again,  as  in  the  earlier  announcements,  to  avoid  the  indicated 
war  zone  until  further  notice.' 

"Still  more  frank  is  Bismarck's  old  organ,  the  Hamburger 
Naohtrichten: 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  395 

"  'Beginning  on  February  18th  everybody  must  take  the  con- 
sequences. The  hate  and  envy  of  the  whole  world  concern  us  not 
at  all.  If  neutrals  do  not  protect  their  flags  against  England, 
they  do  not  deserve  Germany's  respect/ 

"The  misuse  of  the  American  flag  is  annoying  to  this  country 
as  well  as  exasperating  to  Germany,  but  no  government  in  its 
senses  would  seriously  threaten  to  make  that  an  excuse  for  pi- 
ratical operations.  A  merchant  ship  has  a  right  to  fly  any  flag 
the  skipper  has  in  his  locker,  particularly  if  thereby  he  can  de- 
ceive an  enemy  and  evade  capture.  The  custom  is  as  old  as 
maritime  warfare,  and  has  been  resorted  to  numberless  times 
by  every  nation. 

"To  go  no  further  back,  Sigsbee,  in  1898,  reported  that  he  had 
hoisted  the  Spanish  flag  on  the  converted  cruiser  Yale  in  order 
to  get  close  to  a  Spanish  prize.  And  it  was  only  a  few  months 
ago  that  the  German  cruiser  Emden,  flying  the  British  colors, 
penetrated  the  harbor  of  Penang  and  sank  a  Russian  ship  lying 
at  anchor,  a  feat  which  all  Germany  acclaimed. 

"Even  a  warship  may  adopt  this  ancient  ruse,  provided  she 
shows  her  true  colors  before  opening  attack.  Much  less  was  it 
an  infraction  of  international  law  or  of  the  rules  of  the  sea  for 
the  Lusitania  to  run  up  the  Stars  and  Stripes  on  her  dash  for 
Liverpool,  particularly  as  she  carried  American  passengers, 
American  mails  and  American  property. 

"The  device  was  rather  silly,  in  the  case  of  the  huge  liner, 
but  it  was  neither  unlawful  nor  unfriendly  to  this  country. 
The  unauthorized  use  of  our  flag  would  become  obnoxious  only 
if  it  were  made  general ;  it  is  on  this-  ground  that  the  United 
States  has  very  properly  warned  Great  Britain  that  further 
employment  of  the  American  colors  would  not  benefit  her,  and 
might  endanger  American  vessels,  and  therefore,  will  not  be 
tolerated.  The  justice  of  this  position  is  recognized  by  so  in- 
fluential a  journal  as  the  Manchester  Guardian,  which  says: 

"  'If  many  of  our  merchant  liners  were  to  do  the  same,  the 
result  would  be  to  diminish  the  value  of  protection  given  by  the 
American  flag.  Not  only  would  that  be  undignified  in  us  and 
unworthy  the  nation  which  rules  the  seas,  but  it  also  would  be 
unfair  to  the  United  States1.' 

"But  this  issue  is  trifling  compared  to  the  German  effort  to 
exclude  neutral  shipping  from  an  arbitrarily  decreed  'war  zone.' 
It  is  officially  admitted  that  this  does  not  comprise  a  formal 


396  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

blockade,  but  it  is  clear  that  Germany  is  attempting  to  achieve 
the  benefits  of  a  blockade  without  its  heavy  responsibilities. 
Says  the  Kobiische  Zeitung,  organ  of  the  admiralty: 

"  'It  is  sufficient  that  the  facts  be  told  to  those  concerned. 
The  consequences  must  then  be  borne  by  the  skippers  them- 
selves, if  they  venture  into  the  mine  field.  In  the  same  way  the 
announcement  that  the  German  submarines  blockade  the  Eng- 
lish coast  must  suffice.' 

"It  requires  something  more  than  imperial  decrees  and  fear- 
some threats,  however,  to  establish  a  blockade.  Such  was  the 
method  employed  by  the  nations  in  the  Napoleonic  wars;  they 
repeatedly  declared  blockades  which  were  hardly  more  than 
diplomatic  fictions.  But  this  feature  of  strategy  was  formally 
regulated  by  the  Declaration  of  Paris,  in  1856,  and  its  provi- 
sions were  ratified  by  actual  enforcement  in  the  Russo-Turkish 
war,  our  Civil  war  and  the  Spanish- American  war. 

"There  are  three  absolute  requirements  for  a  recognized 
blockade.  First,  reasonable  notice  must  be  given;  this  Ger- 
many has  done.  Second,  the  blockade  must  be  effective.  And 
third,  a  neutral  ship  can  be  seized  only  upon  attempting  an 
actual  breach  of  the  blockade.  The  vital  point  is  that  the 
blockade  must  be  uninterrupted;  if  it  be  raised  temporarily, 
for  any  cause,  new  diplomatic  notice  must  be  given.  And  it 
'must  be  maintained  by  a  force  sufficient  really  to  prevent  access 
to  the  blockaded  coast.' 

"The  penalty  provided  for  the  captured  blockade-runner  is 
seizure.  But  the  law,  as  interpreted  even  by  German  authori- 
ties, is  explicit  upon  the  point  that  no  lives  must  be  destroyed. 
Even  merchant  ships  belonging  to  an  enemy  may  be  sunk  only 
in  cases  of  'pressing  necessity,'  and  'before  such  destruction  the 
persons  on  board  must  be  transferred  to  a  place  of  safety.'  The 
same  rules  apply,  but  of  course  with  greater  emphasis,  to  neu- 
tral vessels. 

"A  lawful  blockade  by  means  of  mines  and  submarines  is 
therefore  an  utter  impossibility,  for  two  reasons.  First,  they 
cannot  exert  the  required  'continuous  force';  and  second,  their 
use  would  necessitate  the  sinking  of  captured  craft,  without 
provision  for  saving  passengers  and  crews. 

"This  is  exactly  what  Germany  threatens,  explicitly  in  the 
matter  of  English  vessels,  and  as  a  possible  result  in  the  case 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  397 

of  American  ships.  Her  war  upon  merchantmen  therefore  be- 
comes a  frank  reversion  to  piracy. 

"It  is  understood  that  she  has  a  perfect  right  to  hold  up  and 
search  neutral  ships  in  her  declared  'war  zone,'  and  to  make 
prizes  of  such  as  carry  contraband.  But  it  is  the  possession  of 
this  very  right  which  forbids  the  inhuman  policy  she  proclaims. 
She  cannot  plead  ignorance  of  a  vessel's  identity,  or  attack  it 
unless  it  refuses  to  stop  when  signaled.  The  burden  of  proof 
is  upon  the  submarine,  and  to  torpedo  a  vessel  on  suspicion 
merely  would  be  unredeemed  piracy  and  murder. 

"This  is  distinctly  a  case  in  which  the  convenient  doctrine  of 
'military  necessity'  is  not  to  be  invoked.  Nor  would  an  occa- 
sional misuse  of  a  neutral  flag  by  belligerent  vessels,  as  a  ruse 
of  war,  justify  a  mistaken  act  of  destruction.  If  every  British 
merchantman  approaching  England  flew  the  American  colors, 
that  would  not  excuse  the  torpedoing  of  one  American  ship. 

"These  facts  are  stated  with  convincing  clearness  in  the  offi- 
cial protest  sent  from  Washington  to  Berlin.  We  do  not  know 
who  framed  this  document,  although  it  bears  distinct  literary 
marks  of  revision  by  President  Wilson.  But  whoever  the  men 
actually  responsible  for  it,  they  produced  a  state  paper  which 
is  a  model  of  terseness,  lucidity,  dignified  courtesy  and  force, 
an  irrefutable  presentation  of  the  relevant  principles  of  inter- 
national law  and  justice.  No  loyal  American  wants  trouble, 
but  the  blood  of  the  most  pacific  citizen  must  move  a  little 
faster  on  reading  the  German  decree  and  the  restrained  but  per- 
fectly straightforward  reply  sent  by  our  government. 

"German  newspapers  scoff  at  the  protests  of  neutral  nations 
against  the  imperial  threat.  Count  von  Keventlow,  an  eminent 
naval  expert,  writes  in  a  Berlin  journal: 

"  'We  have  always  expected  American  outbursts,  and  we  ex- 
pect some  even  more  vehement.  The  German  government  is 
fully  conscious  of  all  the  possible  consequences  of  its  action, 
and  the  German  people  stand  united  behind  their  government. 
It  may  incidentally  be  questioned  whether  the  people  of  the 
United  States  would  do  the  same  in  all  circumstances.' 

"Despite  this  and  like  fulminations,  we  believe  there  will  be 
no  clash.  There  must  be  some  remnants  of  sanity  among  the 
statesmen  who  have  brought  upon  Germany  the  condemnation 
of  the  world. 

"She  'hacked  her  way'  through  Belgium  because  that  was  'the 


398  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

easiest  way,'  and  made  her  own  treaty  'a  scrap  of  paper.'  But 
she  has  notice  now  that  there  are  rights  which  are  superior  even 
to  the  'military  necessities'  of  a  belligerent,  and  a  flag  that  is 
somewhat  more  than  a  scrap  of  bunting.  And  back  of  the 
American  government  in  this  declaration,  Count  von  Reventlow 
to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  stand  the  American  people." 

Another  paper  makes  more  specific  allusion  to  the  case 
of  the  "Wilhelmina,"  now  pending.  (234) 

"If  there  were  any  doubt  as  to  the  purpose  of  the  German 
declaration  of  a  'war  zone'  around  the  British  Isles,  the  tenor 
of  the  German  Ambassador's  communication  to  the  State  De- 
partment would  remove  it.  Count  von  Bernstorff  bluntly  as- 
serts that  his  government  means  to  protect  the  food  supply  at 
any  cost;  that  Great  Britain  is  exceeding  her  rights  in  holding 
up  the  Wilhelmina  or  other  neutral  vessels  carrying  foodstuffs 
to  Germani  ports ;  and  that  if  the  United  States  submits  to  such 
interference,  the  warfare  against  British  commerce  will  be  un- 
dertaken by  Germany  without  any  regard  for  neutral  rights. 
This  setting  forth  of  the  German  position  is  emphasized  by  a 
threat  from  the  German  Legation  at  The  Hague,  to  the  effect 
that  neutral  vessels  within  the  war  zone  after  February  18th 
will  run  the  same  risks  as  if  they  laid  a  course  between  com- 
batants in  a  naval  battle.  That  is  to  say,  no  attention  will  be 
paid  to  the  American  protest  against  the  German  repudiation 
of  the  principles  of  international  law. 

"Assuming  that  this  is  a  correct  statement  of  the  attitude  of 
the  Government  at  Berlin  and  that  its  representatives  at  Wash- 
ington and  The  Hague  speak  by  the  card,  the  embarrassment 
created  for  the  State  Department  becomes  obvious.  The  Wil- 
helmina case  is  now  complicated  to  an  extraordinary  degree 
with  grave  questions  of  public  policy.  Germany  is  endeavoring 
to  use  the  rights  of  the  United  States  as  a  neutral  as  a  weapon 
of  defense.  Great  Britain  asserts  her  own  rights  as  a  belliger- 
ent in  justification  of  her  interference  with  neutral  trade.  The 
United  States  is  bound  to  protect  itself  against  both.  If  that 
were  all,  the  course  of  the  State  Department  would  be  compara- 
tively simple.  But  the  circumstances  under  which  the  Wilhel- 
mina sailed  from  an  American  for  a  German  port  raise  peculiar 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  399 

difficulties.  The  department  informed  the  owners  at  the  time 
that  foodstuffs  were  not  contraband  if  intended  for  civilian  use. 
A  few  days  later  came  the  German  proclamation  commandeering 
all  the  food  supplies  within  the  Empire,  whereupon  Great 
Britain  announced  that  she  would  have  to  consider  shipments 
of  food  supplies  to  German  ports  as  consigned  to  the  German 
Government.  This,  of  course,  altered  the  status  of  the  Wilhel- 
mina's  cargo. 

"The  ship  is  now  in  a  British  port,  and  the  question  of  the 
disposition  of  the  cargo  is  under  consideration.  There  is  no 
question  of  confiscation.  The  case  really  hangs  upon  the  good 
faith  of  the  German  Government  in  giving  assurances  that  the 
cargo  of  the  Wilhelmina  and  other  cargoes  of  a  similar  nature 
would  not  be  taken  for  military  purposes,  but  would  be  reserved 
for  exclusively  civilian  use.  Great  Britain  can  hardly  be 
blamed  for  distrusting  such  assurances;  but  is  not  the  United 
States  bound  to  accept  them  ?  Since,  however,  the  weight  of  au- 
thority is  against  the  German  contention  that  an  embargo  on 
foodstuffs  is  illegal,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  United  States 
can  consider  the  seizure  of  such  cargoes  an  unfriendly  act,  espe- 
cially if  they  are  paid  for  and  the  shipper  suffers  no  loss.  At 
all  events,  it  is  plain  that  no  dispute  between  the  United  States 
aad  Great  Britain  over  the  Wilhelmina's  cargo  would  equal  in 
seriousness  one  between  the  United  States  and  Germany  over 
the  sinking  of  an  American  ship  or  the  loss  of  American  lives 
through  the  act  of  a  German  war  vessel. 

"The  recent  notes  of  the  State  Department  have  been  so  cor- 
rect in  form  and  in  substance  that  there  is  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve it  will  keep  its  head  in  the  midst  of  these  perilous  episodes. 
But  the  decision  it  now  has  to  reach  is  perhaps  the  most  mo- 
mentous of  all." 

The  current  German  newspaper  comment,  in  so  far  as  it 
has  yet  reached  this  country,  seems  to  show  two  things: 
the  real  feeling  of  Germans  toward  America,  and  the  coun- 
sels of  desperation  that  prevail  in  Germany  at  this  time. 
This  is  made  clear  by  the  subjoined  extracts  from  leading 
German  dailies: 


400  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"  'When  something  does  not  suit  the  Yankees/  says  Die  Post, 
'they  are  accustomed  to  adopt  as  threatening  and  as  frightful  a 
saber-rattling  tone  as  possible.  They  reckon  that  the  person 
thus  treated  will  let  himself  be  frightened  and  give  in.  If  this 
does  not  come  to  pass,  however,  if  the  person  thus  treated  and 
threatened  with  the  strongest  expressions  pays  no  attention  and 
shows  that  he  is  not  scared  and  will  not  let  himself  be  driven 
into  a  state  of  funk,  the  swaggering  Yankees  calm  themselves 
soon  and  quiet  down.' 

"Count  Ernest  Reventlow,  the  naval  expert,  in  an  article  in 
the  Tages  Zeitung,  declares  that  the  request  of  the  United 
States  that  ships  be  searched  before  further  action  is  taken 
against  them  shows  'that  the  people  in  Washington  do  not  or 
will  not  comprehend  the  meaning  of  the  German  measure.' 

"  'We  have  so  often  demonstrated,'  Count  Reventlow  con- 
tinues, 'the  impossibility  of  search  that  we  can  merely  refer  to 
our  earlier  remarks.  Washington  must  know  this,  and  therefore 
the  demand  of  the  note  for  a  search  and  the  establishing  of  the 
identity  of  neutral  merchantmen  amounts  de  facto  to  non- 
recognition  of  the  German  declaration  respecting  war  terri- 
tory.' 

"Count  Reventlow  repeats  the  German  order,  the  declaration 
of  which  he  declares  is  a  considerate  warning,  and  adds: 
'Whether  it  is  regarded  or  protested  against  is  of  secondary 
importance.' 

"Count  Reventlow  also  says  that  'the  American  Government's 
request  for  assurances  that  its  ships  and  citizens  will  be  sub- 
jected only  to  search,  even  in  the  war  zone,  is  utterly  out  of 
the  question.' 

"The  Hamburger  Naohrichten  says  that  'the  threatening  sen- 
tences in  the  American  note  are  quite  unimpressive,  and  po- 
litely turned  expressions  do  not  counterbalance  too  evident  par- 
tisanship for  our  enemies.' 

"  'One  cannot  escape  the  conclusion  that  President  Wilson 
and  Secretary  Bryan  in  their  communications  with  the  Mexican 
pretenders  and  rebel  leaders  have  accustomed  themselves  to  a 
tone  that  is  not  suitable  for  communications  with  the  German 
Empire.' 

"The  Vossische  Zeitung  says  that  while  the  searching  of  ships 
for  contraband  previously  has  been  the  acknowledged  procedure, 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  401 

the  entry  of  the  submarine  denotes  a  new  factor  in  naval  war- 
fare. 

"'The  submarine,'  says  the  newspaper,  'runs  a  risk  against 
armed  merchantmen.  England  has  both  armed  its  merchant- 
men and  advised  them  to  carry  false  flags.  The  result  is  that 
the  submarine  which  undertakes  the  search  of  a  supposedly  neu- 
tral ship  runs  the  risk  of  being  damaged,  or  even  destroyed,  by 
an  English  ship  sailing  under  a  false  flag. 

"  'Shall  Germany  in  the  face  of  such  treacherous  measures 
throw  down  her  arms  because  an  American  ship  might  possibly 
be  wrongly  torpedoed?  The  American  note  demands  nothing 
else.' 

"The  Lokal  Anzeiger  makes  the  erroneous  statement  that  only 
the  United  States  among  all  the  neutral  countries  has  protested 
against  the  German  declaration  of  a  naval  war  zone.  It  admits 
the  friendly  nature  of  the  note,  but  says: 

"  'All  this  cannot  alter  the  fact  that  we  must  characterize 
the  standpoint  of  the  note  as  a  mistaken  one.' 

"The  Kreuz  Zeitung  declares  that  Germany's  course  will  not 
be  influenced  by  the  American  note."  (235) 

Let  the  upholder  of  Germany's  "humanity,"  of  her  "af- 
fection and  friendliness  for  America/'  of  her  general 
benevolence  and  righteousness,  consider  this  "war  zone" 
proposal  so  that  he  will  know  exactly  what  it  means,  read 
the  above  extracts  as  to  Germany's  attitude  toward  us  now 
that  we  are  neutral,  read  also  (pp.  217-18)  the  attitude  of 
the  same  papers  toward  us  when  we  were  ourselves  a 
belligerent,  and  reach  his  own  conclusion.  There  must 
be  some  pro-Germans  who  are  still  open  to  conviction. 

But  it  is  impossible  to  dismiss  this  matter  without  con- 
sidering it  in  relation  to  the  other,  which  at  this  writing 
divides  with  it  the  chief  attention  of  the  American  public, 
and  apparently  the  time  and  energy  of  the  Administration. 
The  German  "War  Zone"  decree,  and  the  retaliatory  British 
"Order  in  Council,"  should  be  discussed  together.  I  do  not 
pretend  that  it  is  possible  for  me  to  view  these  occurrences 

26 


402  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

in  a  frame  of  mind  that  could  properly  be  called  "judi- 
cial." Indeed,  I  am  sorry  for  the  American  who  can  read 
the  story  of  the  undoubted  and  unquestioned  events  of  the 
war  up  to  this  date  and  remain  in  the  cool,  calm,  impartial, 
unbiased  mental  condition  that  is  supposed  to  be  habitual 
with  the  judiciary. 

At  any  rate,  to  me  it  seems  that  the  two  proposals  are 
illustrative  respectively  of  the  methods  and  manners  of  the 
two  nations  chiefly  involved. 

Germany  has  notified  us,  and  other  neutrals,  that  any 
vessel  found  after  a  certain  date  in  the  waters  surrounding 
the  British.  Isles, — the  "war  zone," — is  liable  to  be  de- 
stroyed and  its  crew  possibly  drowned,  or,  it  might  be, 
burned  to  death.  The  notification  applies  not  only  to  the 
merchant  ships  of  the  other  belligerents.  She  takes  pains 
to  say  that  "owing  to  the  contingencies  of  naval  warfare," 
it  may  not  always  be  possible  to  prevent  the  ships  of  neu- 
trals "becoming  the  victims  of  torpedoes."  This  is,  as 
has  been  said,  "unrestrained  piracy  and  murder." 

The  British  "order  in  council,"  called  forth  by  the  Ger- 
man "decree,"  is  the  act  which,  on  account  of  that  rela- 
tionship, should  be  contrasted  with  it.  This  order  is 
neither  more  nor  less,  in  essentials,  than  the  "blockade" 
with  which  the  world,  in  some  form  or  other,  has  been 
familiar  for  at  least  a  century  and  a  quarter.  In  1793  a 
similar,  indeed  in  effect  almost  an  identical  proclamation, 
was  made  by  England  against  France,  and  was  acquiesced 
in  as  correct  by  every  European  country  except  Denmark. 

Then,  as  now,  and  on  many  intervening  occasions,  it  was 
designed  to  close  the  ports  of  the  enemy  to  all  incoming  or 
outgoing  commerce. 

It  is  not  open  to  question  that  this  is  the  intent  of  the 
order,  and  that  it  is  no  more  inhumane  than  was  our  own 
blockade  of  the  Southern  ports  during  the  Civil  War.  It 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  403 

is  objected  to  because  it  is  new  in  form,  but  it  is  no  newer 
than  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  order  when  it  was  issued  and  for 
many  months  after,  as  that  did  not  conform  to  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Declaration  of  Paris. 

Any  blockade  involves  some  discomfort  and  some  loss 
to  the  neutrals  whose  commerce  is  affected.  But  again,  it 
is  well  to  remember  that  our  blockade  of  the  Southern 
States  brought  suffering,  distress  and  hardship  to  tens  of 
thousands  of  the  very  persons  in  England  who,  neverthe- 
less, stood  most  steadfastly  for  the  cause  of  the  North  and 
of  freedom. 

The  fact  that  foodstuffs  intended  for  Germany  will  be 
seized  under  this  order  is  denounced  by  the  Government 
as  "inhuman"  and  "murderous."  When  we  read  this  we 
should  remember  that  two  German  Chancellors,  Bismarck 
and  Caprivi,  had  defended  such  seizures  of  foodstuffs  forci- 
bly, specifically  and  comprehensively,  that  Germany  has 
never,  so  far  as  I  know,  disavowed  the  procedure,  that  she 
employed  it  inexorably  and  savagely  during  her  siege  of 
Paris,  and  that  "Bismarck  indulged  his  humor  by  talking 
of  the  starving  Parisians  'eating  babies'  while  he  was  at 
Versailles." 

As  to  the  rigors  of  the  proposed  blockade,  every  possible 
assurance  has  been  given  concerning  the  careful  protection 
of  lives  and  property  wherever  interference  becomes  neces- 
sary, and  in  one  respect  it  is,  as  far  as  my  knowledge  goes, 
the  very  mildest  blockade  in  history,  because^  out  of  regard 
for  the  interests  and  the  sensibilities  of  neutrals,  the  right 
of  confiscation  has  been  waived. 

As  to  the  asserted  abandonment  of  customary  form,  our 
own  State  Department  has  voluntarily  conceded  that 
"methods  of  modern  warfare  may  make  the  former  means 
of  maintaining  a  blockade  a  physical  impossibility."  But, 
in  regard  to  this  alleged  departure  from  established  prece- 


404  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

dent  I  prefer  to  quote  the  opinion  of  an  American  who  is 
an  acknowledged  expert  in  international  law,  Mr.  Frederic 
Coudert.  He  says,  of  the  Order  in  Council : 

"This  is  nothing  in  the  world  but  the  simple,  old-fashioned 
blockade,  the  object  of  which  was  to  >shut  the  ports  of  the 
enemy  to  all  commerce  going  in  or  coming  out.  .  .  .  We 
have  no  more  reason  for  protesting  than  Great  Britain  had  for 
protesting  against  our  governmental  regulations  as  to  blockade 
when  goods  in  British  ships  bound  to  neutral  ports  were  seized 
during  our  Civil  War.  ... 

"It  would  seem  that  the  orders  in  council  are  fairly  within 
the  spirit  of  blockades  as  they  existed  in  our  history  and  in  that 
of  foreign  nations.  .  .  .  The  only  question  that  could  fairly 
be  raised  under  recognized  rules  would  be  as  to  the  effectiveness 
of  the  blockade;  and  this  question  is  one  of  fact,  as  our  courts 
have  held,  and  would  have  to  be  raised  in  each  case. 

"The  two  measures  (the  Allies'  blockade  and  the  German 
war-zone  decree)  are  so  different  in  character  as  to  be  altogether 
incommensurate  and  incomparable.  The  one  is  a  fair  develop- 
ment and  application  of  well-established  rules  and  precedents 
of  international  law;  the  other  is  a  measure  of  ineffective  sav- 
agery, for  which  we  can  find  no  precedent  since  Grotius  first 
wrote  his  great  work  on  the  law  of  nations." 

I  make  no  pretense  to  familiarity  with  the  ways  of  diplo- 
mats or  statesmen.  But  I  confess  to  having  had  a  feeling  of 
marked  vexation  when  I  learned  that,  even  in  the  light  of 
the  facts  above  set  forth,  it  was  thought  necessary  for  our 
Government  to  discuss  the  possibility  of  securing  a  with- 
drawal or  a  modification  of  the  Order  in  Council  on  condi- 
tions formulated  by  Germany.  These  were  to  the  general 
effect  that  she  would  suspend  her  piratical  operations  if 
England  would  "allow  her  to  import  all  the  food  she  needs, 
through  agencies  whose  names  would  be  communicated  to 
the  United  States,  and  who  would  hand  it  over  to  licensed 
dealers  for  consumption  by  the  civil  population  only." 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  405 

In  endeavoring  to  understand  this  proposition  it  should 
now  be  recalled  that  a  previous  German  decree  had  placed 
all  imported  grain  and  flour  under  government  control; 
that  undoubtedly  in  the  eyes  of  the  German  autocrats  the 
needs  of  the  army  would  take  precedence  of  all  other 
needs;  that  the  idea  that  Americans  would  or  could  be 
permitted  to  supervise  the  distribution  of  food  through- 
out Germany  is  so  impractical  as  to  be  absurd;  and  that 
Germany  has  from  the  very  beginning  of  this  war  pleaded 
"necessity"  as  an  excuse  for  the  most  outrageous  violations 
not  only  of  treaties  and  conventions  but  of  international 
laws  and  morals. 

With  these  facts  in  mind  it  seems  to  me  obvious  that 
Germany  has  followed  her  "bluff"  as  to  the  "war  zone,"  (a 
scarcely  appreciable  fraction  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  Allies' 
shipping  has  thus  far  been  affected),  by  an  equally 
clumsy  diplomatic  trick,  which  has  failed,  as  it  should  fail, 
to  deceive  anyone. 

If  the  questions  as  I  have  stated  them  above,  and  I  be- 
lieve I  have  done  so  accurately,  were  regarded  as  mere 
business  propositions  would  be  regarded,  i.  e.  on  any  com- 
mon-sense basis, — practicability,  precedent,  morals,  the  rela- 
tive value  of  the  statements  or  promises  of  the  opposing 
parties — the  "protests"  and  "suggestions"  that  now  make 
demands  on  our  governmental  energy  and  ingenuity  and 
engage  national  attention  would  disappear. 

If  the  discussion  were,  for  example,  among  individuals, 
say  A,  G,  and  E,  A  might  with  entire  justice  say  to  G, 
"It  is  now  a  matter  of  record  that  your  word  is  not  to  be 
depended  upon,  that  your  motives  are  open  to  suspicion, 
and  that  your  morals,  at  least  until  you  atone  for  your 
recent  brutal  treatment  of  an  unoffending  neighbor,  are  to 
be  regarded  with  extreme  disapproval  by  your  former  ac- 
quaintances. I  prefer  not  to  act  for  you,  or  to  transmit 


406  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

your  messages,  or  to  do  anything  that  would  seem  to  miti- 
gate my  intense  detestation  of  your  conduct.  These  feel- 
ings, I  may  add,  are  not  lessened  by  your  recent  threat  to 
disregard,  in  pursuance  of  your  own  aims  and  interests, 
the  lives  and  the  property  of  members  of  my  family,  espe- 
cially as  you  have  already,  in  at  least  one  instance,  illegally 
endangered  the  former  and  destroyed  the  latter." 

And  to  E,  A  might  well  say :  "You  and  your  associates 
have  earned  my  confidence  and  that  of  other  persons  of  our 
class.  Your  present  dispute  inconveniences  me  greatly 
and  will  perhaps  subject  me  to  some  loss.  But  there  are 
obvious  compensations.  Moreover,  you  stand  at  this  crit- 
ical time  for  everything  in  which  I  believe  and  I  do  not 
propose  to  be  fooled,  cajoled,  or  bullied  into  adding  to 
your  burdens.  I  would  like  you  to  be  as  considerate  as  you 
can  of  my  interests  and  my  property  at  this  time,  but  I 
recognize  that  you  have  already  shown  such  consideration 
and  accept  unreservedly  your  statement  that  it  will  con- 
tinue. I  want  you  to  feel  that  you  have  my  earnest  and 
wholehearted  sympathy,  and  that  I  realize  that  disaster  to 
you  and  your  affairs  now  would  ultimately  mean  calamity 
for  me  and  mine." 

Of  course,  if  A  acted  with  the  bravery  and  generosity  of 
which  we  like  in  imaginative  moments  to  think  ourselves 
capable,  he  would  go  further.  But  I  shall  stop  there  and, 
dropping  allegory,  dismiss  this  subject  with  the  words  of 
the  London  Times,  which  after  speaking  of  the  misery, 
almost  the  famine,  brought  about  in  England  by  our  Civil 
War  blockade,  involving  the  whole  population  engaged  in 
one  of  the  chief  of  English  industries,  continues: 

"But  Lincoln's  Government  appealed  for  toleration  and  for 
indulgence,  and  the  appeal  was  not  in  vain.  Under  the  guidance 
of  men  like  Bright  and  W.  E.  Forster,  who  understood  the  great- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  407 

ness  and  the  value  to  mankind  of  the  ideals  for  which  the  North 
was  fighting,  the  British  democracy  did  not  scrutinize  too 
closely  the  acts  of  a  kindred  people  struggling  for  its  life. 
Therein  they  showed  the  large  wisdom  and  the  large  generosity 
of  their  race. 

"May  they  not  hope  to-day,  when  they  have  been  plunged 
against  their  will  into  a  conflict  yet  more  deadly,  for  aims 
which  are  not  less  high,  that  America  will  do  unto  them  as,  in 
the  day  of  her  visitation  and  of  her  trial,  they  did  unto  her  ?" 

I  have,  I  think,  already  sufficiently  indicated  what,  in 
my  opinion,  has  been  the  effect  upon  this  country  of  the 
governmental  attitude  at  Washington.  The  combination  of 
official  neutrality  as  to  matters  involving  the  destruction  of 
a  friendly  fellow-neutral  and  of  insistent  emphasis  upon 
one  side — however  just  it  may  be — of  a  difference  as  to  a 
commercial  matter  (a  difference  which  means  dollars  to 
us,  but  conceivably  life  or  death  to  England),  has  not 
met  with  the  approval  of  the  country.  A  representative 
paper,  usually  friendly  to  the  President,  says,  apropos  of 
the  dispute  as  to  the  right  of  search  (236)  in  conjunction 
with  his  insistence  upon  the  ship-purchase  bill: 

"What  is  the  purpose  of  the  Administration  in  pressing  the 
ship-purchase  bill  at  a  time  when  every  consideration  tells  so 
strongly  against  it  ?  From  the  point  of  view  of  foreign  policy  it 
is  dangerous;  from  the  point  of  view  of  domestic  policy  it  is 
mischievous.  The  Dacia  episode  already  justifies  the  declara- 
tion of  Senator  Lodge  that  the  bill  'would  bring  the  United 
States  within  measurable  distance  of  war*  with  four  Powers. 
For,  with  every  disposition  in  the  world  to  be  on  friendly  terms 
with  the  United  States,  none  of  the  Allies  could  be  expected 
to  look  with  indifference  upon  the  wholesale  transfer  to  the 
American  flag  of  the  German  ships  now  interned  in  American 
ports.  That  this  would  be  in  effect  an  attempt  to  avoid  the  con- 
sequences of  the  enemy  character  of  the  vessel  is  morally  if  not 
legally  certain.  That  it  would  be  favoring  Germany  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  Allies,  and  so  be  a  covert  if  not  an  open  breach  of 


408  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

neutrality,  is  also  clear.  And  if  the  object  of  the  bill  is  not 
the  purchase  of  German  ships,  what  earthly  good  can  it  accom- 
plish? .  .  . 

"The  protests  of  a  few  exporters  of  contraband  who  fear  for 
their  profits  surely  cannot  be  the  cause  of  this  apparent  deter- 
mination to  go  on  fishing  in  troubled  waters.  Even  if  this 
method  of  aiding  American  commerce  had  more  to  commend  it, 
there  would  still  be  a  lack  of  generosity,  of  good  feeling,  in 
pushing  what  is  at  best  a  minor  issue  at  the  moment  the  nation 
nearest  akin  to  us  is  fighting  for  its  life.  Nor  is  this  merely 
a  sentimental  consideration.  Belligerents  and  neutrals  occa- 
sionally change  places,  and  the  friendship  of  Great  Britain 
is  a  valuable  asset,  as  we  discovered  during  the  war  with 
Spain.  It  is  inevitable  that  Englishmen  should  remind 
us  now  of  the  injury  which  our  Civil  War  did  to  their  trade — 
an  injury  much  greater  than  any  which  has  befallen  our  trade, 
and  which  we  must  bear  with  patience,  as  they  did.  That  the 
case  of  the  Bacia  alone  will  create  any  real  breach  is  well-nigh 
unthinkable.  But  if  it  were  multiplied  a  hundred  times  by  the 
addition  of  the  great  German  ocean  liners,  the  dispute,  however 
settled,  would  create  a  bitterness  of  feeling  which,  among  other 
more  important  results,  would  leave  the  United  States  com- 
pletely unqualified  for  that  r6le  of  arbitrator  that  the  President 
so  plainly  is  eager  for  it  to  play." 

I  do  not  want  to  over-estimate  the  importance  of  cur- 
rent journalistic  literature,  but  there  is  much  of  it  at  this 
time  that  shows  great  American  unrest  and  profound  dis- 
satisfaction with  the  course  of  the  administration.  Indig- 
nant citizens  write  to  the  papers  to  express  their  opinion 
that 

"seeking  a  renewal  of  its  tenure  it  is  playing  an  unscrupulous 
game  of  politics." 

Another  view,  scarcely  less  antagonistic  to  the  admin* 
istration,  is  voiced,  though  not  actually  endorsed,  by  a 
careful  and  conservative  journal,  (237)  which  usually 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  409 

gives  the  President  its  support,  even  when  in  the  opinion 
of  some  of  us  he  does  not  deserve  it : 

"There  are  no  more  loyal  citizens  in  America  than  the  great 
bulk  of  those  born  of  foreign  parents.  Nevertheless,  there  are 
Irish- Americans  who  would  be  glad  to  excite  American  hostility 
to  Great  Britain,  and  German- Americans  who  would  be  glad  to 
secure  American  support  for  Germany.  We  do  not  vouch  for 
the  report  that  the  Shipping  Bill  has  been  secretly  pushed  upon 
the  Administration  by  certain  German-American  and  Irish- 
American  interests,  but  we  do  know  that  if  those  interests  were 
represented  by  men  both  shrewd  and  unscrupulous  they  could 
not  easily  invent  any  better  way  of  provoking  hostility  between 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  than  is  afforded  by  the 
Shipping  Bill." 

The  editor  of  still  another  influential  paper  (238)  says: 

"We  are  pacific,  but  we  undertake  some  duties  which  imply 
maintenance  of  a  moderately  competent  apparatus  of  force. 
The  Monroe  Doctrine,  that  is  part  of  our  accepted  foreign 
policy,  is  maintained  not  so  much  by  us  as  by  the  navy  of 
England.  We  see  Germany,  her  vast  efficiency  in  military  mat- 
ters, and  the  curious  obsessions  and  aspirations  to  which  the 
minds  that  control  her  are  subject.  We  know  that  Germany 
has  yearnings  that  conflict  with  our  continental  policy,  and 
that  what  chiefly  stands  between  them  and  us  is  England,  now 
fighting  for  her  life.  We  don't  think  England  will  be  con- 
quered, but  if  she  should  be,  what  have  we  got  to  back  up  such 
an  answer  as  we  should  wish  to  make  to  a  proposal  from  Ger- 
many that  she  should  be  allowed  to  improve  the  culture  of 
Mexico  or  South  Brazil?  And  there  is  Japan,  whom  we  love 
considerably,  and  who  we  doubt  not,  is  fond  of  us,  but  who  will 
think  no  less  kindly  of  us  for  having  due  shot  in  our  lockers-, 
and  being  not  only  polite  and  considerate,  but  able-bodied." 
(239) 

I  must,  for  the  present,  leave  this  side  of  the  subject, 
not  for  lack  of  material  but  for  economy  of  space.     The 


410  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

press  of  this  country  and  its  volunteer  correspondents 
have  expressed  similar  views  from  one  end  of  the  land  to 
the  other. 

My  own  feeling  as  to  the  attitude  of  our  present  national 
administration  was,,  in  reply  to  a  request  for  my  opinion, 
summarized  by  me  recently,  as  follows:  (240) 

I  have  since  seen  no  reason  to  change  my  mind,  but  I 
am  hoping,  almost  against  hope,  that  one  will  present 
itself. 

"For  the  nation,  I  would  earnestly  desire  an  Administration 
.  .  .  that  would  realize  our  shameful  unpreparedness  to 
protect  in  time  of  aggression,  our  most  elementary  rights;  that 
would  not,  in  face  of  convincing  evidence  to  the  contrary,  de- 
pend for  such  protection  on  futile  and  meaningless  agreements; 
that  would  not  allow  to  slip  by,  unheeded  and  ungrasped,  a 
precious  opportunity  to  make  this  country  the  real  moral 
leader  of  the  nations  by  earnest  and  instant  disapproval  of  a 
threatened  international  wrong;  and  finally  that,  having  lost 
this  rare  chance,  would  not  later,  when  the  cause  of  human 
freedom  is  hanging  in  the  balance,  try  to  raise  by  over-emphasis 
a  merely  vexatious  and  petty  commercial  question  into  one  of 
great  international  importance,  obviously  for  the  sake  of  im- 
pressing voters  already  evidencing  disgust." 

My  dislike  of  the  secrecy  of  a  pretendedly  frank  ad- 
ministration is  re-echoed  in  the  following  editorial  (241) 
from  a  paper  that  usually  supports  the  President  It 
here  refers  to  the  "ship-purchase"  bill : 

"Since  all  those  best  qualified  to  judge  have  condemned  the 
bill  as  an  economic  measure,  too,  entirely  apart  from  its  inter- 
national aspects,  there  must  be  some  particular  ground,  aside 
from  an  obstinate  adherence  to  his  personal  opinions,  which 
justifies  the  President  in  his  own  mind  for  pressing  it  upon 
Congress  regardless  of  the  serious  perils  attending  its  passage. 

He  has  one  of  the  keenest  intellects  of  his  generation,  and  he 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  411 

must  know,  as  well  as  Senator  Lodge,  what  international  com- 
plication will  arise  if  he  has  his  way.  He  has  talked  so  much 
about  neutrality,  he  has  been  so  anxious  not  to  stray  a  step 
from  the  path  of  absolute  impartiality,  he  has  dwelt  so  often 
upon  the  moral  influence  which  the  United  States  will  exercise 
when  the  time  for  making  peace  comes  if  it  has  the  confidence 
of  the  belligerents,  that  only  a  very  powerful  motive,  it  must  be 
assumed,  could  lead  him  into  a  course  where  so  many  pitfalls 
exist.  He  has  set  forth  with  candor  enough  the  economic  fal- 
lacies by  means  of  which  he  hopes  to  enlarge  the  American 
merchant  marine ;  but  he  has  said  nothing  to  throw  light  upon 
the  attitude  of  the  Administration  in  throwing  this  fresh  apple 
of  discord  into  an  already  sufficiently  sharp  contest  over  the 
exercise  of  the  right  of  search." 

This  so-called  "Ship-purchase  bill/'  an  administration 
measure  which  the  President  strove  by  every  means  in  his 
power  to  force  through  a  reluctant  Senate,  brought  forth 
a  torrent  of  objection  from  every  part  of  the  country. 
Many  of  the  editorials  and  letters  show  that,  apart  from  the 
economic  fallacies  of  the  bill,  the  bitterest  opposition  was 
aroused  by  the  possibility,  officially  undenied,  that  it  was 
the  intention  of  the  administration,  if  the  bill  passed,  to 
buy  the  German  ships  now  interned  in  our  ports. 

The  sympathy  for  Great  Britain  and  the  dislike  of  Ger- 
man aims  and  methods  were  conspicuous  in  every  instance. 
Although  the  bill  is  now  apparently  permanently  shelved, 
its  resuscitation  is  possible ;  and  in  any  event  the  illustra- 
tion it  affords  of  the  administration's  policies  and  methods 
and  of  the  popular  reaction  to  them  is  important.  I, 
therefore,  give  a  few  examples,  taken  from  papers  conven- 
iently at  hand.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  assumption  has 
been  that  the  intention  of  the  administration  was  to  pur- 
chase the  German  ships. 

Mr.  William  D.  Winsor,  at  the  beginning  of  an  excel- 


412  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

lent  article  written  from  the  practical  economic  standpoint 
(242)  says: 

"All  indications  point  to  the  intention  of  the  Government  to 
purchase  vessels  from  the  fleet  of  German  steamers  now  interned 
in  the  various  ports  of  this  country. 

"Leaving  out  entirely  the  question  of  international  complica- 
tions, which  would  undoubtedly  arise  in  the  event  of  such 
purchase  and  operation  by  the  Government,  and  looking  at  the 
matter  entirely  from  a  practical  business  point  of  view,"  he 
finds  it  indefensible. 

In  an  article  entitled:  "Is  President  Wilson  Pro-Ger- 
man?" (243)  Mr.  Curtis  Guild  reviews  the  statements 
of  some  of  the  disputants  and  continues : 

"Meantime  the  President  has  not  been  idle.  His  extraordi- 
nary partisanship  on  the  side  of  Germany  has,  save  in  a  single 
instance,  been  unbroken.  He  opposed  a  loan  to  France  by  J.  P. 
Morgan  &  Co.,  though  such  a  loan  by  a  private  banking  house  is 
not  merely  perfectly  legal,  but  usual.  At  the  time  of  the  Civil 
War  German  bankers  lent  to  the  North  and  English  bankers  to 
the  South.  During  the  Japanese-Russian  war  our  bankers  lent 
money  to  Japan.  The  loan  to  Russia  now  by  American  bankers 
is  perfectly  justifiable  and  not  a  violation  of  neutrality.  Why 
did  the  President  prevent  a  loan  to  France  by  private  bankers 
as  a  private  enterprise? 

"The  American  ship  Aryan,  built  in  Massachusetts,  owned  in 
Massachusetts,  the  last  of  the  clipper  ships,  was  tied  up  in  Syd- 
ney because  the  British  Government  refused  to  allow  an  Ameri- 
can ship  to  carry  wool,  not  to  Germany,  but  to  the  United 
States  for  the  use  of  the  American  people.  The  State  Depart- 
ment spent  four  weeks  in  explaining  why  nothing  could  be 
done.  Senator  Lodge  in  five  minutes  of  unofficial  conversation 
with  the  British  Ambassador  cut  the  Gordian  knot  and  the 
ship  sailed.  Wool  is  not  contraband  of  war.  The  Administra- 
tion put  forward  a  note  against  the  interference  by  England 
with  cargoes  and  contraband  of  war,  but  promptly  backed  down 
with  an  offer  to  insure  goods  in  advance  to  prevent  annoyance 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  413 

to  the  Allies.  The  Administration  has  successfully  pushed 
through  a  bill,  not  so  bad  in  time  of  peace,  dangerous  in  time  of 
war,  making  it  easier  to  transfer  ships  from  a  European  to 
an  American  register.  What  is  the  result?  The  open  admis* 
sion  in  the  public  press  on  January  24  that  the  United  States 
cannot  prevent  the  seizure  of  the  Dacia. 

"At  the  outset  of  the  war  the  Dacia,  owned  by  Germans, 
was  flying  the  German  flag.  The  Administration  made  it  pos- 
sible for  her  to  shift  her  registry  to  the  American  flag.  She 
is  loaded  with  cotton,  not  a  contraband  article,  destined  for 
Germany.  Of  course,  thanks  to  the  Administration,  having 
changed  her  flag  during  war,  she  is  liable  to  be  seized  by  any 
ship  belonging  to  the  Allies  and  her  future  depends  on  a  prize 
court  of  the  country  whose  vessel  captures  her. 

"The  President's  shipping  bill  is  even  worse.  It  proposes  to 
take  30  or  40  millions  out  of  the  public  treasury  by  taxation 
of  the  American  people  and  to  transfer  it  through  the  pur- 
chase of  German  ships  to  German  bankers,  who  in  turn  can  use 
it  for  a  new  German  war  loan.  This  act  is  suggested  by  the 
same  President  who  disapproved  a  private  war  loan  to  France. 

"If  this  is  not  an  act  of  war  by  the  United  States  against 
the  Allies,  what  is  it?  If  the  ships  which  happen  to  be  the 
ones  available  were  English  it  would  equally  be  an  act  of  war 
against  Germany. 

"Our  merchants  have  the  same  international  right,  however 
productive  of  hatred,  to  ship  cartridges,  guns,  uniforms,  etc., 
to  the  belligerents  that  England  had  when  her  subjects  at  their 
own  risk  fed  the  Confederacy  with  material  of  that  kind.  The 
United  States,  however,  cannot  support  its  citizens  or  protect 
them  if  they  choose  to  take  the  risk  of  selling  articles  that  are 
contraband  of  war. 

"The  Declaration  of  London  was  assented  to  by  every  great 
Power,  though  we  have  not  ratified  it.  It  does,  however, 
squarely  declare  the  international  understanding  of  what  is  and 
what  is  not  'non-contraband,'  and  American  shippers  of  such 
goods  are  entitled  to  protection  by  their  Government  on  such 
goods,  and  only  on  such  goods  if  shipped  in  vessels  that  have 
not  defied  all  law  and  custom  by  changing  their  flags  during 
hostilities." 


414  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

Americans,  when  this  was  written,  were  beginning  to 
wonder  if  the  sympathy  -suggested  by  Mr.  Guild's  caption, 
could  conceivably  be  at  the  bottom  of  the  "Ship-purchase" 
bill.  In  that  case  the  secrecy  as  to  administration  motives 
would  have  been  easily  understood,  although  the  theory 
was  distasteful  to  and  was  not  accepted  by  the  majority  of 
either  press  or  people. 

A  "Native  American"  sends  the  following  politically  sig- 
nificant letter  (244),  which  I  quote  here,  because  the  most 
valuable  evidence  that  Americans  generally  are  not  in 
sympathy  with  the  course  of  the  administration  is  that 
which  comes  from  members  of  the  President's  party : 

"My  father,  grandfather  and  great-grandfather  of  my  name 
were  native  Americans  and  two  generations  before  them  lived 
in  this  land.  On  my  mother's  side  was  a  still  longer  line.  My 
forefathers  and  relations  on  both  sides  took  part  with  the 
Colonies  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  We  'Native  Americans' 
by  long  descent  may  claim  at  least  as  much  right  to  be  heard 
when  the  honor  and  interest  of  our  country  is  at  stake  as  any 
German,  Irish  or  other  hyphenated  American;  and  heard  we 
intend  to  be.  I  believe  that  the  authorities  in  Washington  or 
elsewhere  who  listen  to  the  clamor  of  those  who,  whether  by 
reason  of  commercial  interest,  affection  for  Germany,  or  dis- 
like of  England,  would  seek  to  embroil  us  with  the  latter 
country,  have  no  idea  of  the  depth  of  the  feeling  of  sympathy 
with  the  Allies  in  the  present  war  on  the  part  of  the  vast 
majority  of  native  Americans  of  all  conditions;  and  the  press- 
ing by  the  present  Administration  of  the  Ship-purchase  bill 
during  the  past  few  weeks  has — by  reason  of  the  greatly 
increased  risk  of  serious  friction  with  Great  Britain  which 
would  inevitably  occur  should  the  bill  become  a  law — affected 
the  political  affiliations  of  a  number  of  people  of  my  acquain- 
tance who  have  no  complaint  of  the  President's  tariff  policy. 

"For  example,  I  and  five  of  my  sons  living  in  different  parts 
of  the  country  voted  for  President  Wilson.  Talking  with  two 
of  them  a  few  evenings  ago  we  found  that  all  three  of  us,  with- 
out any  previous  consultation,  had  decided  that  if  he  were  a 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  415 

candidate  at  this  time  we  would  not  support  him.  On  every 
hand  among  the  old  American  stock,  rich  and  poor,  you  hear 
voiced  the  opinion  quoted  by  'Native  American'  to  the  effect 
that  the  Allies  are  fighting  our  cause,  the  cause  of  constitutional 
government  and  liberty." 

Again,  as  to  the  "Ship-purchase"  bill : 

"The  theoretical  policy  of  the  United  States,  spread  broad- 
cast by  the  Administration,  has  been  neutrality.  If  neutrality 
means  anything,  it  means  absolute  impartiality  toward  the 
countries  at  war.  Now,  what  is  the  effect  of  this  questionable 
purchase  on  England,  the  protesting  nation,  and  Germany,  the 
beneficiary  ?  It  puts  into  the  latter's  hands  large  sums  of 
money  immediately  available  for  war  purposes,  or  at  least  for 
maintenance,  money,  which  otherwise  it  could  not  secure.  It 
relieves  her  of  all  danger  of  capture  of  the  vessels  by  the  English 
navy  and  of  loss  resulting  therefrom.  It  helps  to  nullify  Eng- 
land's supremacy  on  the  ocean.  It  gives  direct  aid  and  comfort 
to  Germany  at  the  expense  of  her  enemies,  nations  with  whom 
we  are  on  cordial  terms.  And  to  what  end  ?  That  we  may  profit 
by  the  preoccupation  of  our  friends  and  capture  a  share  of  the 
world's  commerce  which,  prior  to  the  war,  we  were  too  indolent 
or  too  inefficient  to  obtain. 

"Apart  from  the  question  of  abstract  justice  and  from  the 
close  adherence  to  both  the  spirit  and  the  letter  of  our  vaunted 
neutrality,  is  that  of  the  inadvisability  of  submitting  a  test 
question  to  a  friendly  nation,  at  a  time  when  she  is  engaged 
in  a  struggle  for  her  very  existence,  a  struggle,  moreover,  in 
which  our  interests  are  one  with  hers.  I  am  not  asking  that 
we  join  with  her  in  her  fight  for  humanity,  though  something 
may  be  said  on  that  point.  I  am  not  asking  that  we  insist  upon 
the  preservation  of  the  integrity  of  Belgium,  crucified  to  Ger- 
man lust  for  power,  or  that  we  use  all  of  our  strength  to  punish 
the  wanton  and  unforgettable  violation  of  that  suffering 
country.  I  am  asking  that  we  refrain  from  placing  upon  Eng- 
land's already  overburdened  back  a  strain  which  may  bring  it 
to  the  breaking  point,  or  at  least  furnish  a  oasus  differentiw 
if  not  a  casus  lelU. 

"The  ship  purchase  bill  raises  in  larger  form  every  question 


416  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

brought  up  by  the  case  of  the  Dacia.  It  encourages  every  Amer- 
ican whose  greed  is  greater  than  his  appreciation  of  fair  play, 
to  go  and  do  likewise.  The  word  'ghoul'  is  ordinarily  applied  to 
one  who  robs  the  dead  and  dying  on  battlefields  or  at  scenes 
of  great  disaster.  So  great  is  the  disgust  and  reprobation  in 
which  such  practice  is  held  that  the  penalty,  even  in  time  of 
peace,  is  death.  How  much  better  is  the  position  of  the  man — 
or  the  country — who  sanctions  and  encourages  taking  advantage 
of  friendly  nations,  unable  for  the  time  to  maintain  a  commerce 
secured  by  their  own  industry  and  business  acumen.  If  the  bill 
is  passed,  millions  of  dollars  will  go  into  the  German  Treasury, 
to  be  used  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  Each  one  of  the 
Allies  is  a  party  in  interest.  Each  one  will  suffer  from  this 
nation's  breach  of  faith  and  disregard  of  honor."  (245) 

Mr.  William  I>.  Howells,  in  a  letter  to  The  Sun 
(£46),  has  satirically  and  amusingly  summed  up  the 
general  situation,  as  it  seems  to  his  class — the  best  class 
— of  Americans.  The  Sun  has,  it  must  be  understood, 
been  most  strongly  and  effectively  "pro-Ally/3  Mr. 
HowelFs  protest  against  the  Sun's  position  is  pretended 
arid  ironical: 

"To  the  Editor  of  The  Sim—Sir:  Will  you  allow  me  to 
express  a  mild  surprise,  and  some  pain,  at  the  part  you  have 
taken  against  our  possible  entente  with  Germany  in  a  certain 
event  ? 

"You  seem  to  think  that  if  we  get  into  trouble  with  France 
and  England,  not  to  mention  Russia  and  Japan,  by  our  resis- 
tance of  the  Allies'  right  to  search  our  German- American  ships, 
we  shall  certainly  be  beaten  unless  we  range  ourselves  definitely 
on  the  side  of  the  Kaiser.  You  seem  to  see  neither  honor  nor 
profit  for  our  democratic  commonwealth  in  the  friendship  of  a 
cultivated  despotism.  You  do  not  or  will  not  look  forward  to 
the  triumph  when  we  shall  be  conformed  to  the  German  ideal 
in  our  civic  life ;  yet  it  ought  to  be  clear  to  you  that  this  bless- 
ing is  what  we  may  confidently  hope  for.  The  system  which 
combines  the  functions  of  the  schoolmaster  and  the  drill 
sergeant  is  surely  something  to  be  desired  by  every  patriotic 


"A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  417 

American;  and  have  you  no  longing  for  lese  majeste*,  for  uni- 
versal conscription  and  an  iron-sided  military  staff?  Can  you 
see  no  advantage  for  American  youth  in  the  teaching  of  such 
German  professors  as  have  taken  it  for  granted  that  we  could 
not  know  our  minds,  or  had  none  to  know,  on  questions  of  inter- 
national morality  or  of  mere  humanity  ?  Can  not  you  forecast 
a  distinct  gain  for  our  posterity  by  our  renouncing,  now  and 
forever,  under  the  tutelage  of  these  gentlemen  the  notions  of 
our  political  nonage?  Shall  we  not  unquestionably  enrich 
ourselves  by  exchanging  our  Anglo-American  literature  for  the 
German,  and  having  that  language  taught  in  our  schools,  as 
it  is  in  those  of  Alsatia  and  Poland,  instead  of  the  native 
speech?  Do  not  you  know  the  superiority  of  the  romantic 
sculpture  of  the  Sie"ges-Allee  over  the  liberality  of  the  French 
art  which  we  have  hitherto  studied?  Would  not  you  your- 
selves much  rather  print  The  Sun  in  Gothic  type  than  in  the 
barbaric  Roman  characters  which  you  now  use  ? 

"In  a  word,  can  you  imagine  nothing  noble  in  a  voluntary 
Belgium  ? 

"The  questions  crowd  upon  me,  but  I  will  ask  only  one  more: 
Suppose  the  Allies  should  triumph  in  the  battle  which  they 
believe  they  are  fighting  for  free  men  and  free  minds,  for 
justice  and  honor  among  the  nations,  for  peace  and  good  will 
on  earth,  will  not  it  be  a  good  thing  for  us  to  remember  that 
we  once  did  our  worst  to  embarass  them,  since  nothing  could 
discourage  them?" 

b.  What  has  been  the  effect  of  our  official  attitude  upon 
other  countries  ? 

There  seems  little  doubt  that,  for  a  time  after  the  out- 
break of  the  war,  there  was  a  general  feeling  that  America, 
as  the  most  powerful  of  the  neutral  nations,  with  high 
and  truly  democratic  ideals,  would  ultimatsly  be  called 
upon  as  the  natural  guide  and  counsellor  when  the  time 
for  peace-making  arrived. 

It  was  thought  "big  enough  and  courageous  enough  to 
be  discreet  without  being  dumb,  to  be  neutral  without 
being  neuter." 

27 


418  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

I  had  gathered  examples  intended  to  show  the  gradual 
change  of  opinion  that  has  occurred  in  foreign  countries, 
but  the  following  editorial  utterance  of  one  American 
newspaper  summarizes  the  whole  matter  so  admirably  that 
I  prefer  to  quote  it,  in  accordance  with  my  purpose  to 
express  my  views,  when  possible,  through  the  writings  of 
other  Americans  rather  than  by  my  own.  (247) 

In  a  previous  editorial  the  paper  in  question  had  said: 
"The  eagerness  they  (the  warring  powers)  once  showed  to 
capture  favorable  opinion  in  this  country  has  evaporated 
and  the  foreign  press  is  decidedly  antagonistic  to  sugges- 
tions of  an  American  peace  tribunal."  A  correspondent 
has  called  this  a  "gratuitous  invention"  and  reminds  the 
editor  that  he  had  earlier  quoted  utterances  from  foreign 
newspapers  applauding  the  detachment  of  the  United 
States  and  intimating  that  we  would  eventually  be  called 
upon  to  guide  the  distracted  powers  toward  peace.  The 
editor  replies : 

"This  is  quite  true.  It  was  from  such  foreign  expressions, 
no  doubt,  that  the  administration  leaders  derived  that  fluttering 
expectancy  which  even  the  president  cannot  conceal,  and  which 
has  interfered  seriously  with  the  performance  of  the  govern- 
ment's duty. 

"It  was  natural  that  in  the  first  alarm  of  the  great  upheaval 
the  countries  involved  should  look  with  trust  and  friendliness 
to  the  United  States.  They  recognized  this  as  the  greatest  of 
the  neutral  Powers ;  they  knew  that  its  people  held  high  ideals ; 
they  regarded  it  as  big  enough  and  courageous  enough  to  be 
discreet  without  being  dumb,  to  be  neutral  without  being  neuter. 

"One  of  the  leaders  at  The  Hague  conferences,  a  consistent 
advocate  of  peace  and  international  justice,  a  scrupulous 
observer  of  treaty  obligations,  America  was  confidently  expected 
to  perform  her  part  with  fidelity — to  preserve  the  most  exact 
neutrality  and  to  act  as  custodian  of  the  rights  of  neutrals  and 
of  civilization  as  a  whole.  There  was  not  the  remotest  sugges- 
tion of  a  duty  of  intervention;  but  there  was  very  clearly 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  419 

implied  the  obligation  to  speak  when  it  was  necessary  and  to 
keep  the  record  straight  for  presentation  to  the  court  of  nations 
that  some  day  will  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  war. 

"But  this  hope,  which  seemed  widely  held,  was  soon  extin- 
guished. One  by  one  the  conventions  of  The  Hague,  to  which 
the  name  of  the  United  States  had  been  signed,  were  torn  to 
fragments.  The  nationality  of  Belgium  was  struck  down ;  sleep- 
ing non-combatants  were  slain  with  bombs  from  the  midnight 
sky;  cities  were  laid  under  tribute  and  put  to  the  torch;  deadly 
mines  were  strewn  in  the  ocean  paths  of  commerce,  so  that 
peaceful  merchantmen  by  the  score  were  destroyed  and  their 
crews  flung  mangled  into  the  sea;  and  even  the  neutral  waters 
of  this  hemisphere  were  arrogantly  invaded  by  the  belligerents. 

"But  none  of  these  things  extorted  so  much  as  a  word  from 
the  government  of  the  United  States.  Argentina  and  the  other 
Latin  republics  literally  dragged  it  into  acquiescence  in  a 
declaration  of  the  rights  of  neutrals  as  paramount  to  those  of 
belligerents;  while  to  this  day  not  a  whisper  of  protest,  com- 
plaint or  regret  has  been  uttered  over  the  deliberate  repudia- 
tion of  agreements  to  which  this  country  was  a  party. 

"Now  what  was  the  duty  of  the  American  government?  The 
estimate  of  Theodore  Roosevelt  has  some  authority,  since  it  was 
he  who,  as  president,  caused  this  country  to  join  in  the  con- 
ventions that  have  been  dishonored  by  the  belligerents  and  dis- 
regarded by  Washington.  In  the  Independent  he  writes: 

"  'I  took  the  action  on  the  theory  and  with  the  belief  that 
the  United  States  intended  to  live  up  to  its  obligations.  If 
I  had  supposed  that  signing  these  conventions  meant  literally 
nothing  beyond  the  expression  of  a  pious  wish,  which  any 
Power  was  at  liberty  to  disregard  with  impunity,  I  would 
certainly  not  have  permitted  the  United  States  to  be  a  party 
to  such  a  mischievous  farce. 

"'Either  The  Hague  conventions  meant  something  or  else 
they  meant  nothing.  If,  in  the  event  of  their  violation,  none  of 
the  signatory  Powers  were  even  to  protest,  then,  of  course, 
they  meant  nothing,  and  it  was  an  act  of  unspeakable  silliness 
to  enter  into  them.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  they  meant  anything 
whatsoever,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  United  States,  as  the  most 
powerful,  or,  at  least,  the  richest  and  most  populous  neutral 


420  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

nation,  to  take  action  for  upholding  them.  There  is  no  escape 
from  this  alternative.  .  .  .' 

"  'To  violate  these  conventions  is  a  dreadful  wrong.  But  it 
is  really  not  quite  so  contemptible,  it  does  not  show  such  short- 
sighted and  timid  efficiency,  and,  above  all,  such  selfish  indif- 
ference to  the  cause  of  permanent  and  righteous  peace,  as  has 
been  shown  by  the  United  States  (thanks  to  President  Wilson 
and  Secretary  Bryan)  in  refusing  to  fulfill  its  solemn  obliga- 
tions/ 

"Some  Americans  think  the  former  president  goes  too  far, 
because  of  a  distinct  reservation  made  that  the  United  States 
should  not  interfere  in  the  policies  of  foreign  nations.  And  a 
mere  protest,  they  say,  would  have  been  worthless;  it  would 
have  to  be  backed  up  by  armed  force. 

"From  this  view  we  dissent.  The  most  extravagant  reason- 
ing could  not  put  upon  this  country  the  burden  of  making 
war  to  uphold  the  conventions.  But  Colonel  Roosevelt  is 
exactly  right  when  he  charges  that  we  defaulted  when  we  did 
not  file  formal  protest  at  The  Hague.  That  course  would  have 
kept  life  in  the  international  agreements  which  are  now  mori- 
bund, and  would  have  saved  the  written  word  of  the  United 
States  from  becoming  a  mere  'scrap  of  paper.' 

"Our  particular  inquiry  now,  however,  is  as  to  the  effect 
of  our  negligence  upon  American  prestige  and  upon  the  part 
that  this  government  is  to  play  in  restoring  peace.  For  months 
the  Wilson  administration  has  been  agitated  by  the  prospect  of 
mediating  among  the  Powers.  Its  refusal  to  protest  against 
the  dishonoring  of  the  conventions  of  The  Hague  was  not  due, 
we  think,  to  a  'cult  of  cowardice/  as  Colonel  Roosevelt  says, 
but  rather,  to  a  tremulous  fear  lest  such  action  might  offend  a 
belligerent  and  so  avert  the  glory  of  acting  as  world  arbiter. 

"Yet  this  policy  of  silent  acquiescence  in  wrong  has  not 
enhanced  Eurepean  respect  for  our  idealism.  Germany,  for 
example,  is  not  one  of  those  nations  which,  in  President  Wil- 
son's words,  is  going  to  turn  to  America  and  say,  'You  were 
right  and  we  were  wrong;  may  we  not  look  to  you  for  counsel 
and  assistance?'  The  isemi-official  Cologne  Zeitwig  said 
recently : 

"  'Despite  all  friendliness  toward  America,  Germans  must 
recognize  that  America  cannot  be  the  arbiter  between  Great 
Britain  and  Germany.  American  neutrality  has  been  favorable, 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  421 

on  the  whole,  to  Great  Britain,  and  we  cannot  have  in  America 
the  confidence  we  ought  to  repose  in  an  impartial  arbitrator.' 

"The  Hamburger  Fremdenblatt  denounces  the  'humbug  and 
hypocrisy  of  American  public  opinion,'  and  adds : 

"  'In  any  case,  the  people  of  Germany  need  not  bother  them- 
selves in  the  least  about  what  the  Americans  think  or  say, 
so  long  as  the  German  arms  win.  That  is  all  that  matters, 
for  the  American  is  a  thorough  opportunist  and  never  has  any 
sympathy  with  the  side  that  is  beaten.' 

"There  could  hardly  be  a  clearer  reference  to  the  attitude 
of  Washington  on  the  spoilation  of  Belgium.  But,  of  course, 
says  the  hopeful  American,  we  have  a  better  standing  with 
Great  Britain,  even  though  our  only  protest  in  the  whole  war 
has  been  about  some  delayed  cargoes.  We  find  one  answer 
in  an  Austrian  imperialistic  paper: 

"  'President  Wilson  has  been  intimating  what  he  is  prepared 
to  do  as  a  peacemaker.  However,  he  must  realize  that  this  is 
a  fight  to  a  finish.  We  will  not  tolerate  any  third-party  enter- 
prise. When  the  time  comes  to  clear  up  the  final  tangle  there 
will  not  be  any  need  for  the  assistance  of  any  peacemaker. 
There  will  be  no  doubt  as  to  who  has  won.' 

"The  London  Globe  is  less  arrogant  and  more  explicit : 

"  'Let  us  say  frankly  that  the  United  States  have  already 
disqualified  themselves  for  the  assumption  of  judicial  functions. 
They  have  seen  every  Hague  convention  to  which  American 
statesmen  set  their  hands  violated,  clause  by  clause,  and  have 
not  even  protested.  We  do  not  blame  them.  They  are  judges  of 
their  own  consciences  and  their  own  interests ;  but  their  silence 
proves  they  have  set  those  interests  in  front  of  all  other  con- 
siderations.' 

"More  significant  is  the  utterance  of  the  London  Chronicle, 
chief  organ  of  the  Liberal  government: 

"  'It  has  been  the  consequence  of  the  American  attitude  that 
The  Hague  conventions  have  not  only  been  infringed,  but  killed, 
and  killed  beyond  visible  means  of  resurrection,  let  alone  exten- 
sion. No  State  is  going  to  let  itself  in  for  such  a  deception 
again. 

"  'Nor  is  it  possible  to  deny  that  the  moral  position  of  tne 
United  States  has  been  appreciably  weakened.  The  American 
note  regarding  contraband — a  perfectly  fair,  legitimate  and 
well-inspired  document  of  which  we  make  no  complaint — would 


422  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

impress  the  world  rather  differently  if  it  had  been  preceded  by 
notes  in  other  quarters  regarding  the  violation  of  Belgium, 
massacres  of  non-combatants,  illegal  and  merciless  money  fines, 
bombardment  of  defenseless  towns  and  the  scattering  of  long- 
lived  mines  in  the  open  sea.' 

"The  humiliating  fact  is,  not  only  that  we  have  lost  caste 
because  of  our  failure  to  make  good  even  in  form  our  pledged 
word,  but  that,  as  one  of  the  nations  which  laid  the  basis  of 
written  international  law  at  The  Hague,  we  have  defaulted  as 
a  trustee  of  civilization." 

To  this  may  be  added  a  moderate  and  well-reasoned  edi- 
torial on  "America's  Silence"  from  a  London  paper:  (248) 

"Between  the  peoples  of  Britain  and  the  United  States  the 
traditional  feelings  of  kinship  have  been  intensified  by  this  war. 
And  Englishmen  set  a  high  value  on  America's  sympathy  and 
goodwill.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Government  of  the  Union 
has  not  been  always  included  in  this  estimate.  It  has  been  criti- 
cised for  a  lack  of  the  valuable  quality  which  should  have  spur- 
red it  on  to  protest  with  energy  against  the  violation  by  Ger- 
many of  international  law.  It  is  not  enough  to  be  neutral  only 
in  terms  of  negation.  Something  positive  is  also  expected.  No 
country  set  greater  store  by  The  Hague  Conventions  than  Amer- 
ica. She  professed  to  regard  them  as  the  safeguards  of  civiliza- 
ation.  And  now  Germany  has  broken  them  deliberately,  sys- 
tematically, and  ruthlessly,  without  evoking  the  faintest  pro- 
test from  Washington.  Nay,  there  has  been  no  inquiry  insti- 
tuted. Law,  morality,  humanity,  have  been  trodden  under  foot, 
yet  the  humane  President  who  withheld  his  recognition  from 
Huerta  because  Huerta's  hands  were  bloodstained  evinced  no 
interest  in  the  punishment  or  condemnation  of  some  of  the  most 
heinous  crimes  ever  perpetrated. 

"It  is  to  be  regretted  that  such  criticisms  should  be  uttered 
or  provoked.  They  cannot  do  good.  People  are  apt  to  lose 
sight  of  the  circumstance  that  the  United  States  Government, 
if  it  had  a  policy  at  all,  would  doubtless  choose  a  humane  one 
in  harmony  with  the  sentiments  of  the  bulk  of  the  people.  What 
it  has  are  interests  mainly  mercantile,  and  these  it  furthers  to 
the  best  of  its  power.  And  to  find  fault  with  America  for  pro- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  423 

moting  her  mercantile  interests  and  postponing  the  vindication 
of  public  law  would  be  an  impertinence  as  breezy  as  to  insist 
that  because  of  this  reserve  she  should  be  allowed  to  arbitrate 
between  the  Allies  who  are  fighting  to  uphold  international  law 
and  the  Teutons  who  have  outraged  it  without  calling  forth 
one  vigorous  protest  from  the  neutrals.  The  attitude  of  the 
American  Government  throughout  this  disastrous  war  is  preg- 
nant with  far-reaching  consequences  in  the  moral  issues  which 
it  has  raised  or  left  without  solution.  It  has  implicitly  acqui- 
esced in  the  abolition  by  Germany  of  the  public  law  of  nations 
and  in  the  worthlessness  of  treaties.  The  conception  of  a  neu- 
tral State  like,  say,  Belgium  and  Luxemburg  has  been  disem- 
bodied. The  hope  of  establishing  an  equilibrium  of  political 
forces  on  the  basis  of  international  agreements  has  been 
definitely  dispelled.  Henceforth  might  owes  no  allegiance  to 
human  or  divine  law,  it  is  a  law  unto  itself.  Any  belligerent 
who  likes  can  invade  the  territory  of  its  law-abiding  neighbor, 
slaughter  its  unoffending  citizens',  take  hostages  for  their  good 
behavior,  and  shoot  these  if  its  own  drunken  soldiery  com- 
mits excesses  and  lays  the  blame  on  innocent  civilians.  For 
the  lofty  hopes  raised  by  America's  initiative  in  the  reform 
and  enforcement  of  international  law  therp  is  no  longer  any 
place  among  the  implacable  realities  which  her  silence  has 
tolerated  and  encouraged.  The  far-reaching  changes  in  the 
political  framework  of  Europe  which  this  quiescence  renders 
indispensable  will,  when  the  time  comes  to  embody  them,  be 
carried  out  without  the  need  of  active  co-operation  on  the  part 
of  the  Government  of  Washington.  It  will  be  the  ingathering 
of  the  harvest  by  those  only  who  sowed  the  seed." 

If  we  investigate  German  opinion,  as  expressed  in  their 
papers,  we  find  it,  on  the  whole,  justly  unfavorable  to  us 
as  possible  arbitrators,  and,  whether  justly  or  not,  equally 
unfavorable  to  us  as  a  nation.  (249)  The  Kolnische 
Zeitung,  in  an  article  from  which  I  have  already  quoted, 


"Despite  all  friendliness  toward  America,  Germans  mr.st  not 
allow  themselves  to  be  deceived,  and  must  recognize  that  Amer- 


424  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

ica  cannot  be  the  arbitrator  between  Great  Britain  and  Ger- 
many. 

"American  neutrality,  on  the  whole,  has  been  favorable  to 
Great  Britain.  In  view  of  all  this,  we  cannot  have  in  America 
the  confidence  which  we  ought  to  be  able  to  repose  in  a  Power 
which  would  act  as  an  impartial  arbitrator  in  regard  to  an 
arrangement  for  peace. 

"We  cherish  no  feeling  of  irritation  against  America  because 
she  is  friendly  to  Great  Britain.  Such  a  feeling  is  only  natural, 
as  Great  Britain  is  the  American  motherland,  but  it  is  just  for 
this  reason  that  we  fear  prejudice,  and  we  must  in  a  friendly, 
but  firm,  manner  reject  America  as  an  arbitrator." 

"Count  von  Reventlow,  writing  in  the  Berlin  Tages  Zeitung, 
claims  that  America  is  hopelessly  prejudiced  in  favor  of  Eng- 
land, and  states  that  this  is  clearly  shown  in  the  way  that 
America  handles  questions  of  contraband: 

"  'Shipments  whereby  only  the  Allies  benefit,  and  which  con- 
stantly strengthen  the  military  efforts  against  Germany 
actually  work  out  in  practice  as  a  support  of  one  belligerent 
to  the  detriment  of  another,  and  are  contrary  to  the  spirit  of 
neutrality.' 

"What  has  particularly  irritated  German  opinion  is  the  tone 
of  the  American  press,  and  this  is  very  evident  in  a  paragraph 
quoted  by  the  London  Times  from  the  Kolmsche  Zeitung,  which 
says: 

"  'What  has  happened,  in  the  most  widely  read  and  in  the 
majority  of  American  newspapers,  in  the  way  of  odious  attacks 
upon  Germany,  abuse  of  the  Emperor,  and  insulting  pictures, 
has  hardly  been  surpassed  by  the  dirtiest  London  gutter 
journal,  and  the  great  majority  of  the  American  people,  how- 
ever highly  we  may  honor  a  respectable  minority,  have  found 
pleasure  in  this  attitude. 

"  'There  is  further  weighty  consideration  that  while,  upon  the 
whole,  the  American  Government  has  preserved  strictly  an  out- 
ward neutrality,  it  has  again  been  seen  that  there  are  different 
ways  of  being  neutral,  and  America's  neutrality  has,  upon  the 
whole,  favored  England.' 

"Quite  a  contrary  view  on  the  stand  of  the  American  papers 
is  expressed  by  Dr.  Ludwig  Stein,  the  editor  of  that  influential 
organ  of  Jewish  opinion,  Nord  und  Siid,  who,  writing  in  the 
Berlin  Vossische  Zeitung  under  the  heading  'The  Change  of 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  425 

Opinion  in  America,'  says  that  public  opinion  here  is  swinging 
in  favor  of  Germany  and  claims  that — 

"  'An  especially  happy  achievement  of  Count  von  Bernstorff 
is  that  he  succeeded,  during  a  visit  to  William  Randolph  Hearst, 
the  American  newspaper  king,  in  capturing  this  sovereign  and 
over  six  hundred  American  newspapers  for  the  German  cause. 
To  capture  Hearst  is  equivalent  to  a  battle  won.  Since  the 
visit  of  Count  von  Bernstorff  to  Mr.  Hearst,  the  whole  Hearst 
press  has  come  out  openly  for  the  German  cause. 

"  'Any  ally  is  welcome  to  us  in  these  grave  times.  The  peace 
societies,  which  are  very  powerful  over  there,  have  at  their 
head  Andrew  Carnegie,  who  has  remorsefully  renounced  hia 
early  accusations  of  misbehavior  against  the  Kaiser  and  is 
beginning  to  move  tremendously  in  our  favor. 

"  'This  spirit  from  below  is  being  met  more  than  half  way 
by  willingness  from  above.  Secretary  Bryan,  despite  the  fact 
that  his  son-in-lawr  is  an  English  officer,  Captain  Owen  of  the 
Royal  Engineers,  is  known  throughout  the  country  as  the 
'Prince  of  Peace'  and  the  'Angel  of  Peace.'  President  Wilson 
himself  is  quietly  preparing  for  his  future  rOle  of  arbiter  mundi. 
It  gratifies  the  self-consciousness  of  Americans  indescribably 
once  more  to  be  chosen  to  play  a  great,  world-historic  mediatory 
r6le.' 

"The  Hamburger  Fremderiblatt,  however,  does  not  believe  in 
American  sincerity,  and  gives  prominence  to  a  violent  tirade 
against  us  from  the  pen  of  a  correspondent  who  is  described  a3 
'a  partner  in  a  great  German  firm  in  New  York.'  It  runs,  in 
part: 

"  'One  factor  is  the  general  humbug  and  hypocrisy  of  Ameri- 
can public  opinion.  Religion,  virtue,  abstemiousness,  candor, 
and  honor  are  the  stock  phrases  with  which  Americans  are 
stuffed  on  every  possible  occasion.  In  any  case,  the  people  of 
Germany  need  not  bother  themselves  in  the  least  about  what 
the  Americans  think  or  say  as  long  as  the  German  arms  win. 
That  is  all  that  matters,  for  the  American  is  a  thorough  oppor- 
tunist and  never  has  any  sympathy  with  the  side  that  is 
beaten.' " 

There  is  another  point  of  view,  different  in  some  re- 
spects from  mine — especially  in  its  estimate  of  the  present 


426  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

national  administration — but  worthy  of  consideration.  It 
is  admirably  expressed  in  the  following  letter,  written  to 
a  London  weekly  by  a  Philadelphia^  who,  as  the  letter 
shows,  is  uncompromisingly  on  the  side  of  the  Allies 
(250) 

"Born  and  bred  an  American,  I  am,  by  every  circumstance 
of  descent,  association,  and  inclination,  not  only  for  the  Allies, 
but  pro-British  to  the  core.  When  in  England  last  autumn 
I  was  most  anxious  as  to  where  the  sympathies  of  my  country- 
men would  be  placed.  This  was  caused  by  what  I  read  in 
your  newspapers,  and  by  my  knowledge  of  the  imperfect  weld- 
ing of  so  many  races  into  our  citizenship.  To  me,  and  many 
like  me,  therefore,  with  getting  home  came  the  unexpected  relief 
from  this  anxiety  and  much  gratification.  For  where  we  feared 
lukewarmness  or  downright  animosity  we  found  enthusiastic 
understanding  and  sympathy  for  the  Allies — and  increasingly  so 
it  is  wherever  I  go.  Frankly,  however  ( and  this  is  why  I  write 
to  you),  the  tone  of  many  English  newspapers,  as  well  as  pri- 
vate letters,  becomes  very  trying.  There  seems  to  be  growing 
among  you  a  feeling  that  our  national  neutrality  should  be 
more  sympathetic.  The  neutrality  of  a  nation  cannot  be  sym- 
pathetic, and  to  be  neutral  it  must  be  just  and  fair.  Many 
of  us  wish  we  were  young  and  were  allowed  to  help  to  fight 
your  battles.  Everywhere  I  go  I  find  women  knitting  for  your 
soldiers  and  working  men  sending  from  their  scant  savings 
to  help  your  sick  and  wounded.  But  of  a  necessity  all  this 
must  be  individual,  or  if  collective,  certainly  not  national.  I 
do  not  agree  with  the  President's  policies,  and  I  am  not  of  his 
party,  but  I  respect  and  believe  in  his  honest  wish  to  be  neutral ; 
and  if  I  believe  his  desire  to  purchase  ships  to  be  an  economic 
error,  I  certainly  think  that  his  one  object  is  to  serve  his 
country  best.  Remember  that  a  vast  number  of  our  people 
are  of  German  birth  or  extraction,  and  my  only  wonder  is  that 
they  are  so  comparatively  passive  under  the  tremendous  burst 
of  enthusiasm  for  you  and  your  allies.  Remember,  too,  the 
three  generations  of  Roman  Catholic  Irish  who  have  been 
absorbed  into  our  population.  One  thing  only  have  they 
remembered  of  the  old  country,  and  that  is  how  to  hate  England 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  437 

and  the  English.  Surely  America  is  not  responsible  for  the 
way  they  hate  you.  And  with  all  this,  can  you  wonder  that, 
as  a  nation,  we  are  bound  to  be  cautious  and  just  in  our  neu- 
trality, regardless  as  to  where  the  sympathies  of  the  vast 
majority  of  American  individuals  are  placed?  I  think  thia 
ought  to  be  plainly  said  and  plainly  understood  between  friends. 
Surely  it  is  a  great  deal  that  the  embittered  relations  between 
England  and  her  thirteen  colonies  are  forgotten,  and  that  we 
no  longer  hold  in  remembrance  the  cold  comfort  that  came  out 
from  England  in  those  awful  days  of  our  Civil  War,  when  our 
national  existence,  too,  was  at  stake.  The  people  of  this  nation 
— this  English  country  beyond  the  seas — now  thrills  with  you  in 
your  joys  and  in  your  sorrows;  it  mourns  with  you  for  your 
dead;  your  heroes  will  become  the  heroes  of  our  race;  and 
we  each  one  of  us  try  to  aid  in  softening  the  horrors  of  the 
war,  for  in  understanding,  in  brotherhood,  in  fellowship, .  we 
are  of  the  English  make.  The  position  of  a  neutral  nation, 
however,  is  hard  enough.  Do  not  make  it  bitter." 

A  paper  which  has  been  one  of  the  staunchest  arid  most 
powerful  of  the  supporters  of  the  Allies  in  this  country 
takes  up,  in  a  leading  editorial,  under  the  caption  of  "A 
Word  With  Our  English  Friends/5  this  subject  of  the 
expressions  of  discontent  from  them  and  others.  While 
I  am  personally  in  sympathy  with  the  "emotional"  views, 
which  it  rejects,  I  appreciate  its  clear  and  cold  presenta- 
tion of  the  situation  as  it  sees  it:  (251) 

"Assurances  of  American  sympathy  with  the  English  cause 
do  not  meet  the  hopes  of  all  the  English  people.  From  Can- 
ada, from  Australia,  and  from  England  itself  we  have  received 
expressions  indicating  disappointment  at  our  attitude  of  neu- 
trality. Something  more  helpful  than  sympathy,  something 
more  partial  than  neutrality,  protests  against  the  doings  of 
Germany,  and  in  some  quarters  policies  not  distinguishable 
from  actual  intereference  in  aid  of  the  Allies,  seem  to  have 
been  expected.  In  its  most  widely  prevalent  form  this  feeling 
is  based  upon  the  belief  that  in  the  general  interest  of  neutral 
Powers  now  and  hereafter  we  ought  to  have  protested  under  the 


423  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

terms  of  The  Hague  Convention  against  the  violation  of  Bel- 
gium's neutrality,  against  the  destruction  of  precious  monu- 
ments of  architectural  or  sacred  interest  to  the  whole  world, 
against  the  laying  of  mines,  and  even  against  atrocities  which 
have  never  been  proved.  In  another  form,  and  less  frequently 
manifested,  there  has  been  a  feeling  that  we  ought  to  interfere, 
and  with  force,  because  England  is  really  fighting  our  own 
battle,  the  battle  for  deliverance  from  the  spirit  of  military 
conquest  and  world  domination  which,  we  are  reminded,  unless 
it  now  be  crushed,  will  ultimately  endanger  our  own  peace  and 
perhaps  our  national  existence.  . 

"These  views  are  not  those  of  men  in  authority.  Official  Eng- 
land knows  very  well  that  they  are  unreasonable,  that  the  theory 
of  international  action  to  which  they  correspond  could  not  be 
defended  either  in  law  or  in  morals.  They  are  largely  of  emo- 
tional origin,  due  in  some  part  to  the  passions  of  war,  and  to 
the  perfectly  natural  disposition  in  times  of  trial  and  danger 
to  turn  for  help  to  any  source  from  which  men  can  persuade 
themselves  that  help  ought  to  be  expected.  .  .  .  The  Eng- 
lish view  then"  [in  our  Civil  War]  "was  perhaps  an  'exclu- 
sively commercial'  one,  but  no  American  now  has  the  least 
desire  to  recall  those  bygone  matters  in  any  spirit  of  resent- 
ment or  retort.  The  cause  for  which  England  fights,  the  cause 
of  the  Allies,  has  the  sincere  sympathy  of  all  the  American 
people  save  a  part  of  those  whom  ties  of  blood  bind  to  the 
German  cause.  For  the  German  people  we  have  feelings  of 
friendship  and  admiration;  it  is  the  ideals,  the  spirit,  and  the 
purposes  incompatible  with  freedom,  with  peace,  and  with  the 
deeper  interests  of  humanity  which  a  militaristic  imperialism 
has  forced  upon  them,  that  we  find  totally  unacceptable.  To 
those  ideals  and  purposes  we  are  opposed,  from  them  we  with- 
hold our  sympathy,  and  nothing  can  shake  our  faith  in  the 
justice  of  the  cause  in  which  the  allied  forces  are  arrayed. 
With  that  our  English  friends  must  be  content.  We  know  that 
in  sober  reason  they  do  not  and  cannot  expect  any  other  demon- 
stration of  our  friendliness  and  moral  support  than  has  already 
been  plentifully  given.  It  is  only  because  in  times  of  great 
psychological  disturbance  the  suggestions  of  the  emotional  and 
the  thoughtless  may  find  too  wide  acceptance  and  lead  to  mis- 
understandings that  we  have  felt  it  well  to  call  attention  to 
the  matter." 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  429 


Mr.  Harold  Begbie,  writing  from  New  York  to  a  Lon- 
don paper  (252),  says,  and  I  agree  with  him,  that  the 
American  press  voices  the  attitude  of  the  nation  with 
greater  certainty  than  the  government  at  Washington,  and 
adds,  speaking  of  the  end  of  the  war,  that: 

"When  that  day  comes,  will  not  America  gratefully  recollect 
that,  although  its  Government  had  no  word  but  neutrality  and 
sat  throughout  the  struggle  with  hands  carefully  folded,  the 
honest  newspapers,  loving  democracy  more  than  the  exigencies 
of  politics,  made  it  sufficiently  clear  to  the  nation  of  freedom 
that  America  was  not  upon  the  side  of  aggression,  militarism, 
and  a  despotism  of  the  divine  right?  I  dare  to  say  that  the 
newspapers  of  America  have  saved  American  honor." 

Mr.  James  Davenport  Whelpley,  a  well-known  American 
publicist  writes  (253)  that: 

"When  America  realizes  how  deep  are  the  issues  involved,  a 
frank  abandonment  of  neutrality,  as  an  effort  to  secure  peace, 
is  more  than  a  possibility. 

"It  has  not  yet  fully  dawned  upon  Americans  just  how  deeply 
they  are  and  will  be  affected  by  this  struggle-at-arms  in  Europe, 
for  the  political  and  economic  changes  now  begun  are  absolu- 
tely international  in  their  full  meaning.  A  stronger  realization 
of  these  things  will  come  soon;  there  are  already  signs  that  it 
is  on  the  way,  and  then  these  much-discussed  questions  as  to  the 
blame  for  the  beginning  of  trouble  or  for  subsequent  destruc- 
tion and  the  sufferings  of  the  civil  population  will  be  dismissed 
from  the  American  mind,  for  the  time  at  least,  and  the  greater 
question,  one  upon  which  the  entire  nation  will  be  as  a  unit — 
how  to  aid  in  bringing  about  peace — will  absorb  all  thought  and 
energy." 

I  have  never  had  letters  that  were  more  gratifying  than 
those  I  have  received  from  England  and  from  France,  in 
the  last  few  weeks.  Their  expressions  of  appreciation  of 


430  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

what  I  had  tried  to  do,  when  read  in  comparison  with  the 
little  I  had  succeeded  in  doing,  often  made  me  feel 
ashamed. 

And  yet,  among  them,  there  was  one,  from  Glasgow, 
which,  while  kindly  as  to  my  individual  efforts,  went  back 
to  the  Napoleonic  era  for  the  purpose  of  accusing  this 
country  of  "ratting"  at  that  time — whatever  that  may 
mean;  and  there  was  another — also  complimentary  to  me 
personally — from  Edinburgh,  which  takes  me  quite  vio- 
lently to  task  for  having  inadvertently  written  "English" 
when  the  proper  word  was  "British";  another  (from 
Edinburgh),  almost  insulting  as  to  my  misuse  of  "Eng- 
lish"; and  a  fourth  (from  Gourock),  which  deals  with  me 
more  politely,  but  very  firmly,  on  the  same  subject. 

Those  trivial  incidents  illustrate,  in  a  way,  the  point 
made  in  the  above  letter.  We  must  not,  at  this  critical 
time,  be  diverted  by  non-essentials.  We  should  not  be  led 
into  the  use  of  unkindly  adjectives,  or  the  employment  of 
any  form  of  unfriendly  criticism  that  is  at  all  avoidable. 
If  ever  there  were  a  time  when  understatement  was  de- 
sirable it  is  now.  We  have  here  an  administration  which 
is  the  official  mouthpiece  of  the  country  and  which  has 
assumed  a  certain  attitude  and  announced  a  given  policy. 
What  proportion  of  the  American  people  it  represents — 
so  far  as  the  war  is  concerned — it  is  just  now  impossible 
to  determine.  As  to  domestic  matters,  it  was  originally 
a  minority  administration;  and  I  am  of  the  opinion  that 
it  is  even  more  so  to-day  in  regard  to  foreign  relations. 
Of  course,  it  is  true  that,  in  a  sense,  it  stands  for  "Amer- 
ica." For  what  it  does,  within  limits,  "America"  will 
bear  the  blame  or  shame,  or  receive  the  credit  or  glory. 

It  is  difficult  at  times  to  dissociate  in  one's  .  mind  a 
country,  a  whole  people,  and  those  who  for  the  time  being 
represent  it.  So,  when  Americans,  who  would  like  noth- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  431 

ing  better  than  to  be  standing  shoulder  to  shoulder  with 
the  Allies,  read  sarcastic  criticism  of  "America's'7  be- 
havior,, it  hurts,,  even  though  they  realize  that  it  is  in  fact 
criticism  of  a  few  persons  who,  largely  by  accident,  happen 
just  now  to  have  great  power.  And  it  hurts  all  the  more, 
I  suppose,  because  in  our  own  minds  and  hearts  we  feel 
that  the  criticism  is  not  altogether  unjustified. 

But  when  the  distinction  can  be  made,  it  should  be) 
made.  ISTo  lever  for  exciting  anti-British  feeling  here,  is 
left  untouched  by  the  unscrupulous  engineers  of  German 
policy.  There  is  no  use  in  putting  new  ones  in  their 
hands. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  to  others,  even  to  kinsmen,  "my 
country  is  wrong,"  although  one  may  both  think  and  say 
so  at  home.  There  is  also  an  instinctive  repugnance  to 
having  the  correctness  of  such  opinion  demonstrated  to 
the  world  by  someone  else.  The  individual  with  indepen- 
dence enough  to  do  his  own  thinking  much  prefers,  when 
possible,  to  do  his  own  fighting. 

This  does  not  mean  that  Great  Britain  should  not  defend 
with  the  utmost  vigor  every  particle  of  right  or  advantage 
to  which  she  is  entitled.  It  is  meant  simply  as  a  plea 
for  such  avoidance  of  bitterness  in  both  public  and  private 
comment  as  can  be  avoided  by  people  fighting  for  their 
lives.  I  am  disposed  to  think  that  as  time  goes  on  it  will 
be  found  that  the  bitterness  may  safely  be  left  to  us. 
It  is  proverbially  never  absent  from  a  family  quarrel. 

It  is  only  fair  also,  both  to  the  administration,  of  whose 
attitude  I  do  not  approve,  and  to  the  real  Americans — as 
distinct  from  the  German-Americans — to  call  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  latter  are,  without  reason,  as  much  dis- 
contented with  our  official  position  as  are  we,  who  have 
good  cause  for  discontent.  Some  of  the  expressions  from 


432  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

our  German- American  press  will  make  this  clear:    (254) 

"An  interesting  feature  of  the  movement  is  the  fact  that  the 
German- Americans  feel  that  they  have  behind  them  the  support 
of  the  powerful  Irish- American  community.  Thns,  for  example, 
the  editor  of  the  Denver  Colorado  Her  old  writes  that  he  is  pub- 
lishing an  article,  'emanating  from  the  German-Irish  Legisla- 
tive Committee  in  Chicago/  which  'includes  a  call  to  every 
voter  to  write  to  his  respective  Congressman  and  Senator  favor- 
ing this  proposed  law,  and  furthermore  we  will  call  the  atten- 
tion of  every  Irish  and  German  organization  in  the  State  of 
Colorado  to  this  movement  and  urge  them  to  work  for  the 
acceptance  of  same.'  Senators  Hitchcock  and  Works  come  in 
for  a  full  meed  of  praise  and  receive  promise  of  enthusiastic 
support  in  their  campaign  to  stop  this  export  of  arms.  The 
Milwaukee  Germania-Herold  writes : 

"  'These  two  Senators  have  their  hearts  in  the  right  place. 
In  their  eyes  every  dollar  gained  in  this  unworthy  weapon- 
trading  is  blood-money.  They  see  in  every  implement  of  des- 
truction sold  to  England  a  testimony  that  this  dirty  lust  for 
profit  has  turned  us  into  a  nation  of  hypocrites,  which,  while 
professing  to  work  for  the  restoration  of  peace,  is  really  only 
reckoning  how  much  it  can  gain  by  a  shameful  traffic.' 

"An  almost  universal  feeling  seems  to  pervade  the  German- 
American  press  that  our  neutrality  is  merely  a  name;  a  'Dol- 
lar Neutrality,'  the  Newt-Yorker  Herold  calls  it,  and  goes  on  to 
say  that  it  is  only  invoked  to  the  detriment  of  Germany: 

"  'All  the  powder-  and  gun-factories  of  the  entire  land  are 
working  at  breakneck  speed.  For  whom?  From  official  circles 
comes  the  unassailable  answer — For  the  warring  nations  of 
Europe.  In  reality  it  is  more  than  this,  for  while  the  German 
Fleet  is  so  situated  that  it  can  not  drive  such  traffic  from  the 
high  seas,  unquestionably  it  is  for  the  foes  of  Germany.  So 
much  for  the  official  neutrality  of  the  United  States.' 

"In  the  bills  now  before  Congress  the  Illinois  Staats-Zeitung 
sees  an  admirable  means  of  forcing  the  hands  of  the  Administra- 
tion: 

"  'The  Administration  must  show  its  colors  and  state  whether 
it  regrets  having  no  means  at  hand  to  prevent  the  exportation 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  £33 

of  contraband  or  whether  the  lack  of  such  means  is  welcomed 
as  an  excuse  to  support  England  and  her  allies.' 

"The  Staats-Zeitung  is  not  very  hopeful,  for  it  regards  the 
President  and  his  advisers  as  utterly  prejudiced  in  England's 
favor : 

"  'Despite  the  wonderful  successes  of  the  Germans,  the  Presi- 
dent, as  well  as  his  pro-British  followers,  is  still  convinced  that 
England's  rule  of  the  world  can  not  be  shaken  and  that  the 
war  must  end  in  a  defeat  of  the  Germans.' 

A  solemn  warning  for  the  future  comes  from  the  Baltimore 
Deutsche  Correspondent : 

"  'It  is  a  momentous  question  that  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  has  now  to  decide  .  .  .  what  will  our  relations  be 
with  a  Germany  which  has  not  been  crushed,  but  has  crushed 
some  of  its  enemies — as  the  outcome  evidently  will  be.  Is  the 
United  States  powerful  enough  to  risk  throwing  away  the 
friendship  of  a  people  who  command  the  respect  of  the  world  by 
defending  themselves  against  enemies  who  outnumber  them  five- 
fold? We  should  offend  England,  we  are  told,  if  we  refuse  to 
sell  her  munitions  of  war.  Why  should  England  be  offended  if 
we  refuse  to  do  something  for  which  we  took  her  to  task  after 
our  Civil  War?' 

"The  German  Socialist  papers  all  take  the  same  attitude, 
expressed  by  the  CMcagoer  Arbeiter-Zeitung,  which  thinks  that 
legislation  is  useless,  and  is  very  angry  with  Mr.  Schwab  and 
his  fellows.  It  speaks  bitterly  of  German  capitalists  who  are 
so  patriotic  that  they  tumble  over  themselves  to  sell  to  Ger- 
many's foes  weapons  wherewith  the  German  people  may  be 
destroyed." 

The  outcry  as  to  the  trade  in  munitions  of  war  con- 
tinues as  this  chapter  goes  to  press.  All  the  old  argu- 
ments, all  the  accusations  contained  in  the  above  extracts 
from  the  German-American  press  are  repeated  again  and 
again,  wherever  Americans  can  be  got  to  listen.  A  bill  is 
introduced  in  the  closing  days  of  the  session  of  Congress 
authorizing  Mr.  Wilson  "to  lay,  regulate  and  revoke  em- 
bargoes on  all  ships  and  vessels  in  United  States  ports,  or 
United  States  or  foreign  vessels,  whenever  in  his  opinion 

28 


434  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

it  is  necessary,  until  fifteen  days  after  the  commencement 
of  the  next  session  of  Congress." 

This  may  mean  nothing,  but  it  was  introduced,  "after 
conference  with  the  President,"  and,  unfortunately,  to 
many  Americans  that  is  far  from  reassuring.  The  only 
editorial  utterance  on  the  subject  I  have  now  space  to  quote 
is  as  follows:  (251) 

"We  cannot  give  full  credence  to  the  report  we  printed  the 
other  day,  that  'President  Wilson  is  considering  the  advisa- 
bility of  asking  congress  for  authority  to  impose  an  embargo 
upon  the  shipment  of  all  supplies  to  belligerent  nations.'  We 
cannot  conceive  of  his  adopting  a  course  so  unpatriotic,  so 
dangerous  and  so  immoral.  Our  reasons  are  found  in  some 
obvious  facts  which  we  purpose  to  state  here  in  plain  terms. 

"The  demand  for  the  congressional  action  described  has  won 
the  support  of  a  few  heedless  citizens,  who  deceive  themselves 
with  the  theory  that  it  would  promote  the  cause  of  peace.  But 
chiefly  it  is  the  propaganda  of  German- American  agitators. 

"It  is  essentially  a  pro-German  movement.  The  utmost 
efforts  of  its  advocates  cannot  make  an  American  project  of  it. 
Not  only  do  their  mass  meetings  seethe  with  execration  of 
Germany's  opponents  in  the  war,  but  they  express  their  true 
sentiments  by  hissing  and  hooting  the  American  government 
and  its  highest  officials. 

"Moreover,  their  most  plausible  arguments  are  hopelessly 
unneutral  in  implication.  For  example,  they  say  that  there 
was  a  precedent  in  the  embargo  upon  shipment  of  arms  into 
Mexico  during  the  recent  civil  wars.  Of  course  there  was.  But 
then  the  United  States  most  emphatically  was  not  neutral,  for 
this  government  openly  aided  one  faction  by  lifting  the  embargo. 
The  advocates  of  Germany  want  the  United  States  to  do  for  that 
country,  by  shutting  off  the  supplies  of  Germany's  opponents, 
what  it  did  for  Villa  by  lifting  the  prohibition  temporarily. 
It  is  their  privilege  to  urge  the  action,  but  it  is  an  unwhole- 
some pretense  to  call  it  an  act  of  neutrality. 

"Another  favorite  argument  is  that  their  plan  would  'hasten 
the  end  of  the  war.'  They  accuse  this  country  of  prolonging 


A  TEXT-BOOR  OF  THE  WAft  435 

the  strife,  of  adding  to  the  awful  suffering  and  waste  of  life, 
by  what  Representative  Bartholdt  calls  'America's  shameful 
traffic  in  arms.' 

"But  even  in  putting  forth  a  humane  plea  they  cannot  coneal 
their  real  purpose.  For  Mr.  Bartholdt's  complaint  is  not  that 
the  traffic  is  'shameful,'  but  that  it  'makes  us  silent  partners 
of  the  Allies' — a  disgrace  which  he  proposes  to  remove  by 
making  us  the  open  partners  of  Germany.  The  official  pro- 
German  organ,  the  Fatherland,  speaks  even  more  plainly : 

"  'Were  the  war  material  from  the  United  States  withheld, 
the  war  would  come  to  an  end  in  sixty  days  or  less.  The  size 
of  the  contracts  placed  by  the  Allies  in  this  country  is  proof 
that  they  are  without  facilities  for  carrying  on  a  contest  on 
such  a  large  scale.  England  finds  herself  in  a  difficult  position, 
and  could  not  go  on  enlarging  her  forces  without  the  munitions 
being  shipped  to  her  from  the  United  States.  As  for  Russia, 
she  would  be  immediately  at  the  end  of  her  resources  were  the 
American  markets  closed.' 

"Nothing  could  be  more  explicit  than  this.  The  war  could 
be  stopped — by  American  intervention,  by  this  country's  aban- 
donment of  neutrality.  It  could  be  stopped  in  sixty  days — 
by  the  simple  expedient  of  throttling  the  adversaries  of  Ger- 
many so  that  she  might  complete  the  subjugation  of  Belgium, 
France  and  Great  Britain.  It  could  be  stopped — if  the  United 
States  deliberately  took  the  side  of  Germany  and  assisted  her 
to  crush  opponents  that  would  be  left  'without  facilities' — that 
is  to  say,  unarmed. 

"These  agitators,  while  campaigning  openly  in  behalf  of  a 
foreign  nation,  urge  that  they  are  advocating  'true  neutrality.' 
In  the  name  of  Americanism,  they  denounce  the  government 
and  people  of  this  country  as  dollar-grabbing  hypocrites.  By 
sheer  vociferation,  they  seek  to  show  that  the  American  attitude 
is  unheard  of,  an  infraction  of  law,  a  defiance  of  morals,  a 
dastardly  participation  in  carnage  for  the  sake  of  profits. 

"These  charges  are  utterly  and  preposterously  without  found- 
ation. The  legality  of  the  supplying  of  arms  to  belligerents 
by  neutrals  is  impregnably  established  by  statutes,  by  judicial 
decisions,  by  proclamations,  by  the  universal  custom  of  genera- 
tions and  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  nations  of  the  world, 
including  most  emphatically  Germany  herself. 

"So  far  as  the  United  States  is  concerned,  we  quoted  the 


436  A  TEXT-BOOS  OF  THE  WAR 

other  day  the  official  utterances  of  Jefferson,  Hamilton  and  the 
Federal  Supreme  Court;  and,  for  the  rest  of  the  world,  the 
agreements  signed  at  The  Hague.  As  to  thisi  war,  the  American 
position,  in  compliance  with  the  strictest  rules  of  international 
law,  was  stated  in  the  President's  proclamation  of  August  4th. 

"That  document  reaffirmed  that  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
do  not  interfere  'with  the  commercial  manufacture  or  sale  of 
arms  or  munitions  of  war,'  and  provide  that  'all  persons  may 
lawfully  and  without  restriction  manufacture  and  sell  within 
the  United  States  arms  and  munitions  of  war  and  other  articles 
ordinarily  known  as  contraband  of  war.' 

"If,  however,  the  advocates  of  an  embargo  want  European 
authority  for  the  American  position,  they  can  find  it  in  the 
course  of  Germany  itself,  which  supplied  arms  to  both  Japan 
and  Russia  in  1905;  to  both  Turkey  and  the  Balkan  States  in 
the  recent  wars,  and  at  various  times  to  every  important 
country  in  the  world.  And  when  they  hiss  the  name  of  Secre- 
tary Bryan  at  their  meetings  they  should  remember  that  he 
holds  a  note  handed  to  him  on  December  15  last  by  the  German 
Ambassador,  which  says: 

"  The  Imperial  German  Government  agrees  that  under  the 
general  principles  of  international  law  no  exception  can  be 
taken  to  neutral  States  letting  war  material  go  to  Germany's 
enemies  from  or  through  neutral  territory,  and  that  the  adversa- 
ries of  Germany  are  authorized  to  draw  from  the  United  States 
contraband  of  war,  and  especially  arms.' 

"But  if  the  legality  and  propriety  of  the  traffic  are  conceded 
and  appeal  is  made  against  it  on  moral  grounds,  or  in  behalf 
of  humanity  and  peace,  the  case  is  even  more  conclusive,  for 
it  is  rooted  not  merely  in  the  decisions  of  governments  and  the 
rules  of  international  law,  but  in  logic  and  the  fundamental 
principles  of  justice. 

"The  most  obvious  answer  to  the  demand  is  that  an  embafgo 
would  be  a  flagrant,  inexcusable  and  malignant  breach  of  neu- 
trality. In  the  beginning,  in  accordance  with  custom,  the 
American  markets  were  declared  open  to  all  the  belligerents  on 
equal  terms;  they  are  still,  so  far  as  this  country  is  concerned, 
as  open  to  Germany  as  to  England  or  France.  The  reason  Ger- 
many cannot  now  obtain  American  war  supplies  is  that  her 
adversaries  bar  the  way  through  control  of  the  sea. 

"For  the  United  States  now  to  reverse  its  declared  position 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  437 

would  be  to  nullify  the  advantages  won  by  England  and  France 
at  the  cost  of  many  lives  and  vessels.  By  so  doing  this 
country,  in  effect,  would  confer  on  Germany  the  power  of  a 
great  Atlantic  fleet,  for  it  would  arbitrarily  deprive  her 
opponents  of  an  advantage  they  have  achieved  through  superior 
naval  power. 

"The  act  would  be  not  only  unneutral  in  principle,  an  inter- 
vention in  behalf  of  one  group  of  belligerents  against  the  other, 
but  it  would  be  an  indefensible  violation  of  an  explicit  provi- 
sion of  one  of  the  conventions  of  The  Hague,  to  which  the 
United  States  is  a  party: 

"  'The  rules  impartially  adopted  by  the  neutral  Powers  shall 
not  be  altered  in  principle  during  the  course  of  the  war  by  one 
of  the  neutral  Powers,  except  in  the  case  where  experience 
shows  the  necessity  for  such  action  in  order  to  safeguard  a 
nation's  rights.' 

"So  far  as  the  rights  of  the  United  States  are  concerned,  they 
irresistibly  demand  strict  adherence  to  the  rule  of  free  export 
of  war  munitions.  Violation  of  it  would  not  only  be  dishonor- 
able, but  would  create  a  precedent  of  the  most  perilous  kind. 
No  matter  how  distant  may  be  the  next  war  of  the  United 
States,  the  country  is  certain  to  be  unprepared;  and  if  it  must 
then  depend  upon  its  own  resources  for  arms  and  ammunition, 
the  result  will  be  disaster.  We  keep  no  large  war  supplies  on 
hand,  and  before  American  manufactories  could  meet  the 
demand  the  nation  would  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  enemy. 

"This  is  precisely  the  reason  why  the  nations  are  agreed  that 
the  selling  of  munitions  by  neutrals  should  be  unrestricted 
except  by  the  kability  to  capture  on  the  high  seas.  As  Profes- 
sor Albert  B.  Hart,  of  Harvard,  says: 

"  'This  self-restraint  ( imposed  by  neutrality) ,  does  not  include 
the  shipment  of  military  stores,  for  an  obvious  reason:  that 
some  nations  have  not  sufficient  factories  of  small  arms  and 
ammunition,  cannon  and  clothing  for  themselves.  They  could 
never  indulge  in  war,  even  in  self-defense,  if  they  could  not 
import  these  necessities  both  before  .the  war  begins  and  while 
it  is  going  on.' 

"The  most  notable  example  now  in  view  is  Belgium,  which 
is  buying  arms  and  ammunition  in  the  United  States.  The 
Germans  are  operating  fbr  themselves  the  huge  Belgian  arms 
factories  at  Liege;  and  the  German- American  agitators,  in  the 


438  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

face  of  this,  would  have  the  United  States  help  Germany  to 
crush  Belgium  by  refusing  to  sell  to  her  the  weapons  needed 
for  self-defense. 

"It  is  true  that  Germany  is  entitled  to  use  the  military 
advantage  she  has  won  in  Belgium,  just  as  the  Allies  are 
entitled  to  enforce  their  control  of  the  sea.  If  the  United 
States  had  refused  from  the  beginning  to  permit  the  export 
of  arms,  it  would  be  unneutral  to  reverse  that  attitude  for  the 
benefit  of  Belgium.  But,  having  declared  our  markets  open, 
and  having  supplied  Germany  with  materials  as  long  as  she 
was  able  to  transport  them,  we  cannot  justly  close  those 
markets  to  her  opponents. 

"Most  of  the  advocates  of  the  embargo  are  frankly  pro-Ger- 
man. But  its  pacificist  supporters  should  realize  that  the  plan, 
far  from  promoting  peace,  would  be  the  strongest  possible  stimu- 
lus to  militarism.  Germany  for  years  has  had  the  greatest 
manufactory  of  arms  in  the  world,  and  the  changing  of  the 
rule  that  neutrals  may  supply  weapons  to  belligerents  would 
mean  that  every  other  nation  would  be  impelled  to  adopt  her 
system  of  piling  up  vast  armaments  in  times  of  peace. 

"Those  who  urge  the  embargo  as  a  measure  of  humanity  and 
civilization  are  fatally  in  error.  They  ask  that  the  United 
States  should  arbitrarily  make  new  international  law — not  for 
the  benefit  of  the  world,  but  for  the  benefit  of  a  single  bellig- 
erent. What  they  demand  would  amount  to  active  intervention 
in  the  war.  It  would  be  dangerous,  destructive  and  dishon- 
orable. It  would  be  neither  justifiable  nor  effective.  It  would 
make  us  false  to  our  obligations,  false  to  neutrality,  false  to 
the  duty  of  guarding  our  future  security  and  false  to  the  cause 
of  peace." 

A  review  of  the  difficulties  into  which  America,  de- 
scribed as  "an  unfortunate  old  gentleman" — "Uncle  Sam" 
—has  been  plunged,  in  spite  of — or  because  of — its  neu- 
trality, has  been  made  by  the  same  paper.  (256)  It  de- 
scribes the  rigid  technical  attitude  of  the  President,  say- 
ing that  he  has  carried  passivity  to  -such  an  extent  that 
the  moral  influence  of  America  has  suffered  partial 
eclipse,  and  continues : 


'A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  TEE  WAR  439' 

"This  rigid  attitude  has  been  dictated  largely  by  the  Presi- 
dent's desire  to  be  selected  as  mediator  when  the  war  ends. 
Events  have  shown  that  his  purpose,  as  well  as  the  interests 
of  the  United  States  and  of  humanity,  would  have  been  served 
better  by  an  active  than  a  passive  neutrality.  The  low  estimate 
of  America  held  by  the  allied  nations  is  due  wholly  to  her 
failure  to  protest  against  violation  of  the  conventions  of  The 
Hague. 

"But,  aside  from  this,  it  was  evident  early  in  the  war  that 
strict  neutrality  would  create  special  difficulties  for  the  United 
States.  Both  sides  strenuously  wooed  American  public  opinion 
through  official  and  literary  advocates,  and  each  was  hurt  and 
surprised  when  Americans  showed  a  disposition  to  give  the 
other  a  hearing.  Each  belligerent  group  charged  the  enemy 
with  unbridled  atrocity  and  perfidy,  and  this  country's  disincli- 
nation to  enter  the  quarrel  mystified  and  exasperated  both. 

"It  was  so  perfectly  clear  to  Germany  that  the  war  had  been 
wickedly  forced  upon  her,  and  that  Belgium  was  a  treacherous 
foe  of  civilization,  that  .she  bitterly  resented  American  condem- 
nation. France  was  chilled  by  our  official  aloofness.  And 
England,  although  gratified  by  evidences  of  moral  sympathy, 
has  not  failed  to  admonish  us  that  our  attitude  would  have 
been  more  worthy  of  a  great  nation  if  it  had  been  the  same 
in  all  respects  as  her  own. 

"The  reason  is  obvious.  Nations  at  war  are  naturally  in  an 
abnormal  state  of  mind.  Fighting  for  their  very  lives,  neu- 
trality becomes  to  them  inconceivable;  moral  sympathy  only 
exasperates  them,  and,  as  an  eminent  German  has  remarked, 
'foreigner  means  enemy.' 

"We  have  already  quoted  many  influential  persons  and  news- 
papers to  the  effect  that  American  mediation  is  impossible. 
Some  further  expressions  will  be  enlightening  as  to  European 
opinion  of  this  country. 

"Let  us  take  Germany  first.  Ten  days1  ago  the  Cologne 
Gazette  said  it  was  'boiling  with  rage  at  England's  despicable 
conduct,'  and  added:  'Some  neutral  countries,  too,  including 
the  United  States,  have  forgotten  what  fair  play  means.'  A 
week  later  it  remarked  that  'American  neutrality  is  only  a 
thin  curtain  behind  which  zealous,  loving  service  to  England 
conceals  itself.' 

"Public  feeling  is  turning  strongly  against  the  United  States,' 


440  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF1  THE  WAR 

reports  the  Berlin  correspondent  of  a  Copenhagen  paper.  And 
the  head  of  the  German  branch  of  the  Standard  Oil  said  the 
other  day  that  Americans  had  shown  themselves  'pitiful  weak- 
lings.' 

"French  opinion  is  more  polite  or  more  effectively  censored, 
but  former  Premier  Clemenceau  has  bitterly  condemned  Amer- 
ican favoritism  toward  Germany.  As  for  England,  we  find  the 
London  Express  complaining  that  the  administration  'is  ready 
to  buy  votes  by  a  show  of  tail- twisting/  and  the  Morning  Post 
charging  that  'the  only  points  on  which  the  American  govern- 
ment has  officially  expressed  it  itself  are  those  in  which  the 
Allies  stand  to  suffer  and  Germany  to  benefit.' 

"Even  in  this  country  the  views  of  neutrality  are  in  just 
as  sharp  conflict.  Robert  Bacon,  a  diplomat  of  experience,  has 
declared  that  our  policy  touching  the  war  is  'weak  and  unwise.' 
Another  American  charges  that  'the  administration  has  been 
the  catspaw  of  German  manipulation/  while  Curtis  Guild,  who 
was  our  representative  in  Russia,  criticises  the  'extraordinary 
partisanship  on  the  side  of  Germany.' 

"Meanwhile  German- Americans  are  holding  noisy  mass  meet- 
ings to  denounce  American  'subservience  to  England'  and  to 
demand  their  special  kind  of  pro-German  'neutrality.' 

"So  we  see  that  our  pitiful  picture  of  Uncle  Sam  is  not  over- 
drawn. Europe  mocks  at  his  laborious  efforts  to  maintain  an 
attitude  of  official  impartiality,  and  he  is  becoming  more  un- 
popular every  hour  among  the  excitable  belligerents.  The 
London  correspondent  of  the  Chicago  Daily  News  has  written 
to  his  paper: 

"  'Conversations  with  persons  of  force,  representing  the  sen- 
timents of  Great  Britain,  France,  Russia,  Italy  and  Germany, 
compel  the  conviction  that  the  United  States  is  making  no  real 
friends  in  this  war.  The  general  charge  against  us  is  that  we  are 
displaying  a  shameless  lack  of  idealism,  chivalry,  magnanimity 
and  courage.  ...  It  seems  that  the  whole  of  Europe  is 
hardening  against  America.  One  cannot  doubt,  as  matters 
stand,  that  when  peace  comes  the  United  States  will  have  no 
hand  in  making  it.' 

"  'We  are  going  to  be  cordially  detested  by  the  whole  world 
when  this  war  is  over,'  says  an  American  ambassador  to  one  of 
the  belligerent  countries,  according  to  the  New  York  Tribune; 
and  that  paper  adds:  'It  is  not  inconceivable  that  even  Germany 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  441 

and  England  may  become  friends  before  some  Germans  and 
some  Englishmen  forgive  Uncle  Sam  for  his  middle  course.' 

"Most  of  the  criticism  leveled  against  us  is  due  to  the  inevi- 
table unbalancing  effects  of  the  war  upon  the  minds  of  belliger- 
ent peoples.  But  much  of  it  arises  from  our  refusal  to  utter 
a  word  in  behalf  of  the  dishonored  agreements  of  The  Hague, 
to  which  we  had  pledged  our  support.  There  the  United  States 
has  been  faithless  to  its  duty,  and  has  lost  the  chance  to  gain  a 
moral  ascendency  that  would  have  been  a  powerful  influence  for 
peace  and  for  the  best  interests  of  humanity.  At  a  recent 
meeting  to  advocate  the  strengthening  of  international  law, 
Earl  Grey  stated  the  case  conservatively: 

"  'The  neutral  powers  who  signed  the  conventions  of  The 
Hague  missed  a  great  opportunity  by  not  protesting  against 
the  violations  of  the  international  regulations  that  occurred  in 
this  war,  and  thereby  promoting  collective  responsibility  by  all 
civilized  nations  for  the  maintenance  and  enforcement  of  inter- 
national law.' 

"But  we  have  already  discussed  this  question  in  detail.  Our 
concern  now  is  with  the  extraordinary  difficulties  of  being  a 
neutral.  If  there  were  nothing  else,  the  shipping  controversy 
in  itself  would  afford  striking  evidence  of  this.  All  England, 
for  example,  was  agitated  by  the  hoisting  of  the  American  flag 
over  a  vessel  purchased  from  a  German  firm;  but  a  few  days 
later  all  England  exulted  in  the  hoisting  of  the  same  flag  over 
the  Lusitania. 

"The  fact  is  that  Uncle  Sam,  who  is  actually  losing  sleep  over 
his  responsibilities,  is  suffering  the  proverbial  fate  of  the  peace- 
maker and  the  innocent  bystander.  The  belligerents  are  never 
too  greatly  preoccupied  to  heave  an  occasional  brick  at  his  well- 
meaning  head. 

"There  really  ought  to  be  established  an  international  course 
in  this  supremely  difficult  profession  of  neutrality.  Its  subtle- 
ties are  quite  beyond  the  capacities  of  the  American  people.  If 
some  nations  can  spend  untold  millions  to  fit  themselves  for 
war,  we  could  well  appropriate  a  liberal  sum  to  train  ourselves 
for  the  intricate  duties  of  keeping  out  of  it.  Senator  La  Fol- 
lette's  resolution  calling  for  a  conference  of  neutral  nations  is 
a  move  that  should  be  carried  through. 

"For,  after  all,  that  proposal  touches  upon  the  biggest  issue 
of  the  war.  The  world  has  seen,  and  is  seeing  every  day,  a  con- 


442  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

stant  extension  and  encroachment  of  the  rights  of  belligerents. 
It  is  by  no  means  too  soon  to  prepare  for  a  united  declaration 
which  will  establish  the  rights  of  neutrals,  whose  task  is  to  pre- 
serve the  institutions  of  civilization,  and  which  will  be  main- 
tained against  the  assumption  of  nations  at  war  that  military 
necessity  justifies  the  violation  of  every  principle  of  inter- 
national law." 

The  whole  question  seems  to  me  of  much  importance 
to  both  the  material  interests  and  the  fair  fame  of  Amer- 
ica. As  we  have  seen  widely  diverse  opinions  upon  it  are 
held  both  here  and  abroad.  Its  reflex  effect  upon  our  do- 
mestic political  conditions  is  fraught  with  such  great  pos- 
sibilities, that,  for  the  benefit  of  those  Americans  who  are 
concerned  as  to  their  country's  honor,  arjd  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  those  whose  votes  will,  within  two  years,  uphold  or 
condemn  the  administration  to  which  that  honor  has  been 
entrusted,  I  want  to  quote  one  more  carefully  considered 
and  weighty  editorial  view  of  the  situation.  (257)  Under 
the  title  "America's  Duty  and  the  Eules  of  War/'  it  notes 
that  we  have  been  passing  judgment  on  the  governments 
of  other  countries  in  this  time  of  war,  says  that  it  is  about 
time  we  should  form  our  judgment  concerning  the  atti- 
tude of  the  government  of  our  own  country,  adds  that  war 
is  a  test  of  character,  illustrating  its  meaning  by  the  re- 
cent revelation  of  Belgium's  "soul  of  heroism,"  and  con- 
tinues : 

"How  is  the  American  nation  standing  the  test  of  war? 
There  are  two  judgments  about  America.  One  is  the  judgment 
which  we  Americans  have  welcomed :  That  America  is  the  land 
of  liberty,  the  land  of  justice  to  all  men,  of  equal  law  for  all, 
of  brotherhood  and  comity.  The  other  judgment  is  that  which 
some  foreigners  have  passed  upon  us :  That  America  is  the  land 
of  the  dollar,  the  land  of  commercialism,  of  self-seeking,  of  the 
desire  to  'get  rich  quick.'  Which  judgment  is  true? 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  443 

"The  answer  is  to  be  found  not  in  what  individual  Americans 
think  or  say,  nor  even  in  what  Americans  as  individuals  may  do 
in  the  way  of  generous  giving  to  those  who  are  suffering  the 
privations  of  war ;  it  is  to  be  found  in  what  our  nation  does  as 
a  whole,  in  its  formal  and  official  action  and  utterances. 

"It  will  help  us  to  form  our  own  judgment  if  we  listen  rea- 
sonably to  that  of  others.  Here  is  the  judgment  of  one.  It  is 
expressed  in  the  Toronto  Globe:  There  is  something  morally 
wrong  with  the  man,  whether  Canadian  or  American,  who  can 
picture  the  indescribable  sufferings  of  the  Belgian  people  with- 
out a  sense  of  rage  and  indignation  at  those  responsible  for  that 
ruthless  and  calmly  deliberated  crime.  There  would  be  some- 
thing wrong,  cowardly,  and  criminal  in  the  Canadian  nation  if, 
under  the  circumstances,  Canada  did  not,  at  once  and  to  the 
last  power,  strike  for  Belgium's  defense  and  for  the  defense  of 
innocence  and  the  preservation  of  honor  among  nations.  More 
than  that.  The  civilized  world  will  convict  the  American  Re- 
public of  wrong  and  of  cowardice  and  of  complicity  in  the  worst 
international  crime  since  Napoleon's  unpardoned  offense  if  that 
free  nation,  itself  the  heir  of  all  the  ages  of  struggle  for  liberty, 
does  not  soon,  and  in  terms  the  world  will  understand,  make 
straight  and  solemn*  protest,  in  the  name  of  international  law, 
to  the  world's  court  of  public  opinion  against  Germany's  vio- 
lation of  international  agreements  to  which  the  United  States 
was  a  pledged  party.  ...  A  nation  that  loves  righteous- 
ness is  under  compulsion  to  abjure  iniquity.' 

"Let  us  listen  to  another  voice — it  is  that  of  the  London 
Spectator:  'Can  it  be  wondered  at  that,  even  though  we  may 
be  unreasonable,  and  though,  of  course,  we  ought  to  see  the 
American  case  and  so  forth,  we  feel  out  of  heart  that  America 
seems  to  reckon  up  the  matter  in  cold  dollars  and  cents  rather 
than  in  terms  of  flesh  and  blood  and  human  suffering?' 

"It  is  easy  to  resent  such  strictures;  but  resentment  will  do 
us  no  good.  It  is  easy  to  say  that  these  judgments  are  passed 
by  those  who  are  facing  the  perils-  and  are  stirred  by  the  emo- 
tion of  war.  But  the  real  question  is  whether  they  are  true  or 
not.  And  the  way  to  find  out  whether  they  are  true  is  not  by 
answering  back,  but  by  looking  the  facts  in  the  face.  What  do 
those  facts  show? 

"They  show  that  the  American  nation,  as  a  nation,  has  made 
its  solemn  representation  to  one  of  the  belligerents,  not  on  a 


444  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

question  of  flesh  and  blood,  of  humanity,  of  justice  to  the  de- 
fenseless, but  on  a  question  of  American  profits  in  trade." 

The  conduct  of  England  in  our  time  of  great  struggle 
over  questions  of  human  right  and  human  liberty  is  then 
noted,  and  it  is  said  that,  as  Americans  judged  England 
sharply  for  what  she  did  then  we  should  listen  to  the 
judgment  of  England  on  what  America  is  doing  now: 

"And  it  is  not  as  if  we  had  had  no  chance  to  make  our  voice 
heard  regarding  questions  of  honor  and  liberty  and  public  law. 
We  had  our  chance — a  very  great  chance — even  before  the  storm 
of  war  actually  broke.  To  the  rule  that  neutral  territory 
should  be  kept  free  from  invaders  we  had  pledged  ourselves  by 
hand  and  seal.  Every  foreign  nation  as  well  as  our  own  Gov- 
ernment knew  that  Belgium  was  in  peril.  We  could  have  sent 
an  identical  note  to  every  European  nation  that  in  case  of  hos- 
tilities this  country  expected  Belgium's  territory  to  be  kept 
inviolate.  We  lost  that  chance  when  the  first  German  soldiers 
passed  the  Belgium  border.  Still  we  might  have  spoken,  even 
though  our  protest  could  not  have  prevented  what  the  German 
Chancellor  has  acknowledged  to  be  an  international  wrong. 
Morally  we  were  bound  to  speak,  and  technically  we  still  had 
the  right  to  speak.  But  the  time  passed  and  we  continued  our 
silence.  Six  months  have  gone  by.  The  only  sign  of  interest 
which  our  Government  has  officially  shown  in  the  effects  of  the 
war  has  been  an  interest  in  copper,  and  cotton,  and  foodstuffs, 
and  the  like. 

"Has,  then,  all  chance  for  setting  ourselves  right  been  lostf 
We  are  convinced  that  it  has  not.  The  true  beliefs  and  inter- 
ests of  the  American  people  can  still  be  voiced.  The  United 
States  is  not  concerned  solely  with  one  violation  of  a  single 
Hague  Convention;  it  is  peculiarly  concerned  with  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  whole  spirit  and  purpose  of  the  rules  of  civilized 
warfare." 

The  article  then  recites  some  of  the  rules  of  interna- 
tional law  and  of  The  Hague  conventions  and  continues: 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  445 

"The  principles  underlying  these  and  the  other  rules  are  per- 
haps most  succinctly  stated  by  this  one  rule,  numbered  68 : 

"  'Modern  wars  are  not  internecine  wars  in  which  the  killing 
of  the  enemy  is  the  object.  The  destruction  of  the  enemy  in 
modern  war,  and  indeed  modern  war  itself,  are  means  to  obtain 
that  object  of  the  belligerent  which  lies  beyond  the  war. 

"  'Unnecessary  or  revengeful  destruction  of  life  is  not  lawful.' 

"It  is  upon  the  principles  embodied  in  this  rule  and  exem- 
plified in  the  other  rules  that  the  Conventions  at  The  Hague 
were  based.  It  is  because  the  nations  of  the  earth  which  were 
civilized  enough  to  observe  laws  for  individuals  within  their 
borders  recognized  that  there  was  also  an  unwritten  moral  law 
of  civilization  as  between  nations  that  they  established  those 
Hague  Conventions.  The  violations,  therefore,  of  the  Hague 
Conventions  are  something  much  more  serious  than  even  the 
breaking  of  a  pledged  word.  They  are  attacks  upon  this  funda- 
mental law  of  civilization.  Excuse  for  such  violations  cannot 
be  found  in  any  technical  defense,  for  the  fundamental  law 
which  those  violations  break  is  not  based  on  any  technicality. 
If  any  nation  in  the  world  is  interested  in  maintaining  the 
public  law  of  nations,  this  fundamental  law  of  civilization,  it  is 
the  United  States.  To  allow  the  violations  of  that  law  to  pass 
unnoticed  is  to  be  unfaithful  to  civilization. 

"That  there  have  been  violations  of  this  public  law  of  nations 
in  the  war  now  raging  there  is  no  doubt.  That  law  was  violated 
in  the  invasion  of  Luxemburg  and  Belgium,  and  it  is  charged 
that  that  law  was  violated  in  Chinese  territory.  It  has  been 
violated  in  the  dropping  of  bombs  by  airmen  upon  civilians  and 
upon  private  property,  whether  the  towns  in  which  such  civilians 
were  killed  and  such  property  destroyed  were  defended  or  not. 
It  has  been  violated  in  the  deliberate  bombardment  of  unde- 
fended towns  and  undefended  districts  in  great  cities.  It  has 
been  violated  by  pillage,  by  the  levying  of  illegal  contributions 
upon  at  least  one  province  and  several  cities,  by  the  exaction  of 
collective  penalties  for  individual  acts,  by  the  demand  for 
millions  of  dollars  of  merchandise  from  private  parties.  It 
has  been  violated  in  the  needless  bombardment  and  destruction 
of  monuments  of  religion,  education,  and  art.  It  has  been  vio- 
lated in  the  forcing  of  inhabitants  of  occupied  territory  to  fur- 
nish information  about  the  armies  of  their  own  nation.  It  has 
been  violated  in  the  laying  of  mines  in  the  open  sea.  It  has 


446  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

been  violated  in  raids  by  sea  and  land,  and  by  other  measures 
whose  only  possible  military  consequence,  and  therefore  whose 
evident  object  was  to  strike  terror  into  the  hearts  of  non- 
combatants.  In  addition  to  undeniable  facts  there  have  been 
official  accusations  which  go  to  show  that  in  this  war  there  has 
been  exhibited  time  and  time  again  a  ruthless  brutality  that 
cannot  be  explained  as  the  irresponsible  action  of  individual 
soldiers,  but  involves  the  deliberate  military  policy  of  re- 
sponsible officers. 

"If  there  had  never  been  a  Hague  Convention  signed,  the 
moral  interests  of  the  United  States  in  these  infractions  of  the 
public  law  of  nations  would  still  be  plain.  The  fact  that  there 
are  Hague  Conventions  and  that  the  United  States  has  signed 
and  confirmed  them  makes  all  the  more  plain  not  only  the  in- 
terest of  the  United  States  in  these  infractions,  but  the  right  of 
the  United  States  to  say  something  about  them. 

"In  the  face  of  these  facts,  how  can  the  United  States  remain 
silent?  It  is  the  plain  duty  of  our  Government,  supported  as  it 
is  by  the  public  sentiment  of  our  people,  to  let  the  belligerents 
know  what  the  United  States  thinks  about  these  ' relapses  into 
barbarism.'  To  say  that  a  protest  issued  by  the  United  States 
on  this  subject  would  mean  war,  as  some  have  said,  is  to  ignore 
the  fact  that  we  have  already  undertaken  a  protest,  and  there 
has  been  no  sign  of  our  intending  to  take  part  in  the  war.  The 
only  difference  is  that  the  protest  we  have  made  is  a  protest 
about  our  pocketbook,  while  the  protest  concerning  the  viola- 
tions of  the  rules  of  war  is  a  protest  that  concerns  humanity 
and  morality. 

"America's  duty  concerning  the  violations  of  the  rules  of  civ- 
ilized warfare  would,  we  believe,  be  fulfilled  in  part,  if  not  in 
full,  by  a  note  addressed  and  sent  to  all  the  belligerents,  if  not 
to  all  civilized  governments.  Such  a  note  should  be  drafted  by 
at  least  as  practiced  a  hand  as  that  which  prepared  the  recent 
statement  concerning  munitions  of  war  and  other  matters  affect- 
ing American  neutrality.  It  should  set  forth  the  fundamental 
character  of  the  public  law  of  nations  on  which  the  rules  of 
war  are  based.  It  should  recount  not  only  those  rules  of  war 
which  have  been  explicitly  stipulated  in  writing  by  common 
agreement  of  the  representatives  of  the  nations,  but  also  those 
rules  which  may  be  said  to  form  a  part  of  the  international 
common  law  of  war.  It  should  recount  the  nature  of  the  vio- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  447 

lations  of  those  rules,  and  point  out,  at  least  as  explicitly  as 
the  protest  with  reference  to  neutral  trade,  the  character  of  the 
acts  that  have  been  a  denial  of  civilization.  Whether  the  guilty 
nation  or  nations  be  specified  or  not  matters  little  or  nothing. 
Whoever  finds  that  the  cap  fits  can  put  it  on. 

"By  such  a  protest  we  believe  the  American  nation  can  yet 
do  much  to  mitigate  the  war ;  for  no  nation,  however  indifferent 
to  public  sentiment,  will  care  to  invite  the  condemnation  of  the 
American  Government.  If  the  United  States  is  to  have  any  part 
in  determining  the  nature  of  the  peace  that  is  to  follow  this 
war,  as  President  Wilson  believes  that  it  will,  its  influence  will 
be  determined  largely  by  the  course  it  now  assumes;  and  if  its 
influence  then  is  to  be  for  international  morality,  it  cannot 
ignore  international  morality  now." 

With  this  admirable,,  though  to  my  mind  too  conservative, 
summary  of  the  facts  or  principles  bearing  upon  America's 
duty  at  this  crisis,  I  must  leave  the  matter  with  my  read- 
ers, not,  however,  without  the  hope  that  the  majority  will 
agree  that  we  should  do  something, — something  definitely 
on  the  side  of  justice  and  decency,  even  if  it  is  only  a 
protest. 


CHAPTEE  XVII. 

From  the  Confusing  and  Contradictory  Reports  from  the 
Fields  of  War  and  from  Other  Information  to  be  Gleaned 
Elsewhere,  Are  There  Any  Indications  That  Justify  an 
Opinion  as  to  the  Final  Outcome  of  the  Struggle? 

I,  of  course,  do  not  make  the  slightest  pretense  to  abil- 
ity to  answer  a  question  as  to  which  the  experts  of  the 
world  disagree.  But  it  is  of  such  interest  that  any  rea- 
sonably intelligent  person  who  thinks  about  the  war  at  all 
— and  who  does  not? — can  scarcely  refrain  from  specula- 
tion on  the  subject.  It  is  probable  that  here,  in  America, 
the  masses  are  better  informed  as  to  the  whole  series  of 
events  since  August  1st,  1914,  than  are  the  people  of  any 
other  country.  Moreover,  the  field  to  be  surveyed  is  so  vast 
that  to  get  a  comprehensive  view,  a  true  perspective,  re- 
moteness is  essential.  It  was  amusing  in  September  and 
October  to  find  how  much  more  was  known  to  the  average 
American  than  to  the  German-Americans  returning  from 
Carlsbad,  Berlin,  or  Munich,  who  disembarked  in  New 
York  eager  to  instruct  and,  if  necessary,  to  convert  their 
fellow-citizens. 

The  failure  to  have  definite  views  does  not,  therefore, 
arise  from  any  relative  lack  of  information  on  this  side 
of  the  water,  but  from  the  essentially  insoluble  nature  of 
the  problem  at  this  time.  It  must  be  admitted  that,  in 
considering  it,  my  opinions  are  unavoidably  influenced  by 
my  hopes.  So  far  as  the  results  up  to  this  date — the  end 
of  March — are  concerned,  neither  side  seems  to  have 
gained  any  material  ureponderance  of  successes.  The 

(448) 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  449 

lasses  in  dead,  wounded  and  prisoners,  are  estimated  as 
nearly  equal.  The  territory  occupied  by  the  Germans  in 
France  and  Belgium,  is  about  the  same  as  that  occupied 
by  the  Eussians  in  Galicia.  The  expenditure  in  money 
appears  to  be  in  the  aggregate  approximately  the  same  for 
the  two  sides.  The  losses  at  sea,  although  the  balance  is 
in  favor  of  the  Allies,  are  so  far  from  being  decisive  that 
they  might  almost  be  ignored. 

The  determination  to  fight  to  the  bitter  end  is  said  to 
be  equally  inflexible  in  all  the  countries  concerned.  An 
American  paper  (258),  a  short  time  ago,  reviewed  the 
situation,  which  it  described  as  a  "gigantic  deadlock,"  and 
said  that  in  view  of  this: 

"It  is  interesting  to  recall  some  of  the  early  predictions.  We 
shall  note  them  in  chronological  order. 

"In  mid-October  Paul  Leroy-Beaulieu,  a  noted  French  polit- 
ical economist,  estimated  the  duration  of  the  war  at  seven 
months.  At  the  end  of  November  'an  officer  of  high  position 
in  General  French's  army'  was  quoted  as  follows: 

"  'The  war  will  be  over  before  June.  Early  in  the  summer 
Germany  will  be  ready  to  make  peace  on  the  best  terms  she  can 
obtain.  This  prediction  is  purely  a  military  one,  and  leaves  out 
of  consideration  what  terms  Germany  will  be  able  to  obtain  and 
be  willing  to  accept.' 

"About  the  same  time  an  interesting  forecast,  attributed  to 
'a  military  authority,'  was  published  in  Paris.  It  said: 

"  'He  divides  the  war  into  six  periods — two  past,  one  present 
and  three  to  come.  The  first  was  the  German  advance  through 
Belgium  and  into  France.  The  second  was  the  battle  of  the 
Marne  and  the  German  retreat  to  the  Aisne.  The  third  is  that 
of  the  fighting  on  the  Aisne,  continuing  and  developing  into 
the  effort  to  reach  Calais. 

"  'The  fourth  period  will  be  a  German  retreat  and  a  battle  on 
the  Meuse.  The  fifth  will  be  a  further  retreat  and  a  battle  on 
the  Rhine.  The  sixth  will  be  the  march  to  Berlin. 

"  'He  estimates  that  the  battle  for  Calais  will  last  well  into 
December.  He  assigns  five  months  to  the  battle  of  the  Meuse — 

29 


450  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

till  about  May  1,  1915.  The  campaign  on  the  Rhine  should  last 
nearly  twice  as  long — say  until  February,  1916.  The  march  to 
Berlin  and  the  negotiations  should  bring  the  war  to  an  end  in 
1917.  He  assumes  that  the  operations  will  be  steady,  with  no 
sudden  collapse  of  either  front.' 

"This,  it  will  be  recalled,  is  in  harmony  with  Field  Marshal 
Kitchener's  estimate  of  a  war  of  three  years;  recently  he  has 
been  said  to  have  remarked  that  'the  war  will  begin  in  May.' 
But  while  the  French  expert  was  laying  out  a  struggle  lasting 
until  1917,  an  American  economic  expert  was  telling  us  that 
it  must  end  in  a  few  months.  Roger  W.  Babson  said : 

"  'I  care  not  how  much  the  statesmen  of  the  various  nations 
talk  about  a  long  war,  I  can  say  authoritatively  that  the  bank- 
ers of  these  nations  know  that  it  cannot  be  long.  ...  I 
have  found  bankers  agreed  that  the  attempt  of  either  side  to 
fight  this  war  to  a  finish  means  financial  bankruptcy  for 
Europe. 

"  'It  is  all  very  well  to  talk  about  unlimited  supplies  of  men; 
but  the  nations  cannot  fight  without  huge  sums  of  money.  The 
rulers  of  Europe  have  gone  crazy.' 

"Guglielmo  Ferrero,  the  eminent  Italian  historian,  gave  his 
estimate  as  two  years.  He  recalled  the  theory,  once  very  widely 
held,  that  the  deadliness  of  modern  weapons  and  the  colossal 
size  of  modern  armies  would  make  wars  impossible;  and  said 
that  not  only  had  this  idea  been  refuted,  but  that  these  factors 
had  made  a  quick  decision  impossible.  'In  proportion  to  the 
measure  in  which  they  have  been  perfected,'  he  wrote,  'armies 
have  become  less  adapted  to  fulfill  their  mission.' 

"About  the  middle  of  December  Hilaire  Belloc,  who  is  noted 
as  a  military  writer,  declared  that  no  one  could  safely  predict 
the  duration  of  the  conflict.  But,  he  said,  'it  will  end  within 
three  months  after  the  allied  troops  have  obtained  a  firm  foot- 
hold on  German  soil.' 

"Early  this  year  a  letter  from  a  French  officer  told  of  a  new 
French  army  of  1,000,000  men  that  would  go  to  the  front  in 
February,  preparatory  to  a  decisive  movement  against  the  Ger- 
mans in  March  and  April.  'The  war,'  he  said,  'will  last  two 
years,  at  least.' 

"The  military  expert  whose  illuminating  articles  appear  in 
the  New  York  Sun  and  The  North  American  wrote  on  Janu- 
ary 6th: 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  4B1 

"  'Neither  Germany  nor  her  enemies  have  destroyed  the  mili- 
tary power  of  their  opponents.  So  far,  it  is  a  plain  draw. 
.  .  .  After  five  months  of  war  there  is  not  the  slightest  sign 
to  be  found  anywhere  of  immediate  peace.  .  .  .  The  unmis- 
takable belief  in  neutral  countries  that  Germany  must  ulti- 
mately lose  is  based  on  the  conviction  that  she  cannot  forever 
match  men  and  money  with  three  great  powers.  .  .  . 

"  'Early  in  the  war,  Lord  Kitchener  fixed  three  years  as  the 
limit  of  the  conflict.  To-day  the  best  witnesses  in  Europe  agree 
that  it  will  be  longer  rather  than  shorter.' 

"Thus  the  weight  of  opinion  seems  to  be  that  the  struggle  will 
be  long,  bloody  and  incredibly  costly.  The  most  potent  factor 
is*  that  neither  side  shows  the  remotest  desire  for  peace.  Ger- 
many still  manifests  extreme  confidence  of  victory,  while  Great 
Britain,  France  and  Russia  have  made  solemn  treaty  to  fight 
until  Germany  is  subdued.  Neither  force  has  suffered  suffi- 
ciently to  make  peace  more  attractive  than  the  prospects  of 
victory,  however  remote. 

"No  conceivable  settlement  now  would  satisfy  one  group  or 
the  other.  Peace  must  await  the  time  when  one  has  suffered 
crushing  loss,  or  when  general  exhaustion  compels  a  com- 
promise. 

"What,  then,  are  the  chances  for  a  decisive  victory  by  either 
side?  Competent  observers  see  no  probability  of  such  a  result, 
unless  through  a  sudden  collapse  of  the  fighting  spirit  on  one 
side,  of  which  there  are  now  no  indications. 

"The  amazingly  stubborn  contest  along  the  western  battle 
front  certainly  does  not  suggest  it.  The  swift  advance  of  the 
invaders  during  August  had  a  decisive  look,  but  before  mid- 
September  the  invincibility  of  the  German  army  had  become  an 
exploded  myth.  Man  for  man  and  gun  for  gun,  the  forces  of 
France  and  Britain  and  Belgium  had  proved  themselves  the 
equals  of  the  best  troops  of  the  Kaiser.  Paris  was  saved,  the 
German  march  on  Calais  and  Dunkirk  was  broken,  and  for 
nearly  five  months  the  hedge  of  steel  has  resisted  every  assault. 

"Action  in  the  east  has  been  more  violent,  but  no  more  final. 
Austria's  strength  has  been  borne  down,  but  the  Germans  and 
Russians  have  alternated  as  victors  in  East  Prussia  and  in 
Poland.  There  is  no  likelihood  that  the  British  and  German 
fleets  will  soon  be  engaged.  The  air  raids  on  the  east  coast  of 
England  are  but  ghastly  jokes. 


452  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"After  nearly  six  months  of  war,  Germany  holds  most  of 
Belgium  and  a  corner  of  France.  Her  colonies  are  gone,  but  her 
European  possessions  are  intact,  except  for  narrow  portions  of 
East  Prussia  and  Alsace-Lorraine.  It  has  been  shown  that  she 
cannot  break  the  Allies'  strength  in  the  West;  and  while  she 
may  preserve  her  Eastern  frontier,  her  most  brilliant  victories 
will  make  no  permanent  impression  on  the  hosts  of  Russia. 

"There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  German  armies  will 
ever  see  Paris.  On  the  other  hand,  to  expel  them  from  France, 
at  the  present  rate  of  progress,  would  take  years.  And,  in  the 
event  of  a  forced  retreat,  the  Germans  have  three  massive  lines 
of  defense  prepared  from  the  sea  to  the  Rhine  through  Belgium ; 
while  if  they  are  thrust  over  the  German  border,  the  invaders 
will  have  to  storm  fortresses  well-nigh  impregnable. 

"From  a  military  standpoint,  therefore,  it  appears  that  Ger- 
many can  be  defeated  only  by  a  wearing-down  process — by  eco- 
nomic pressure  and  the  capacity  of  the  Allies  to  increase  their 
military  strength  while  hers  remains  stationary.  The  result 
depends  upon  the  supplies  and  the  handling  of  money,  men  and 
food.  The  theory  is  that  Germany  can  be  defeated  by  impover- 
ishment, by  overwhelming  numbers,  or  by  starvation,  or  by  the 
pressure  of  all  three.  Some  figures  bearing  upon  these  points 
will  be  enlightening. 

"Just  a  year  ago  a  director  of  the  Deutsche  Bank  issued  an 
elaborate  computation  of  the  national  wealth  of  Germany  and 
other  countries.  Leaving  Russia  and  Austria  out  of  considera- 
tion, it  was  shown  that  the  wealth  of  France  was  $57,400,000,- 
000;  of  Britain,  $61,125,000,000,  and  of  Germany  $75,000,000,- 
000,  an  excess  for  the  Allies  of  $43,525,000,000.  The  yearly 
incomes  were  computed  as  follows  France,  $5,000,000,000; 
Britain,  $8,750,000,000,  and  Germany,  $11,250,000,000,  an  an- 
nual excess  for  the  Allies  of  $2,500,000,000. 

"The  'cost  of  the  war  can  be  expressed  in  figures,  but  they  are 
so  vast  as  to  be  almost  beyond  comprehension.  Early  in  Oc- 
tober Yves  Guyot,  an  eminent  French  economist,  estimated  the 
total  loss  to  the  world  at  $17,600,000,000  in  the  first  six  months. 
France's  expenditures  for  the  first  six  months  have  totaled 
$1,200,000,000. 

"On  December  10th  Dr.  Julius  Wolf,  a  Berlin  expert,  esti- 
mated the  cost  of  the  Austro-German  armies  at  $15,000,000  a 
day  and  the  armies  of  the  Allies  at  $22,500,000  a  day,  a  total  of 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  453 

4 

$37,500,000  each  twenty-four  hours.  On  January  1st  the  Berlin 
Vorwuerts  declared  the  Allies  were  spending  $24,962,000  daily, 
against  $21,000,000  for  Germany  and  Austria. 

"A  careful  estimate  of  the  losses  in  men  to  January  1st  shows 
the  killed,  wounded  and  missing  of  Germany  and  Austria  to 
number  3,000,000,  and  those  of  France,  Britain,  Belgium  and 
Russia  about  3,130,000.  Of  those  killed,  the  Germans  and  Aus- 
trians  had  lost  410,000  and  the  Allies  475,000. 

"These  are  the  stupendous  forces  that  are  to  be  taken  into 
account  in  considering  how  long  the  war  can  last.  Much  em- 
phasis is  laid  upon  the  terrific  drain  upon  Germany's  economic 
resources.  But  it  is  just  there  that  German  efficiency  tells, 
and  the  empire's  leaders  ridicule  the  idea  that  the  nation  can 
be  'starved'  into  submission. 

"The  German  Press  Bureau  in  New  York  issued  a  statement 
recently  computing  a  total  army  and  recruiting  strength  in 
Germany  of  12,000,000  men.  Professor  Usher,  an  American 
authority,  insists  that  Germany,  by  making  some  sacrifices, 
can  live  on  her  own  resources.  Field  Marshal  von  der  Goltz 
said  a  month  ago  that  Germany  was  prepared  to  fight  'for 
years.'  Dr.  Otto  Appel,  a  German  agricultural  expert  now  in 
this  country,  declares  that  supplies  are  so  efficiently  managed 
that  the  people  will  never  lack  food.  A  week  ago  Lieutenant 
General  von  Falkenhayn,  the  chief  of  staff,  stated  that  Germany 
is  ready  to  fight  'indefinitely.' 

"It  is  clear  that  the  political  and  military  leaders  of  Ger- 
many are  relentlessly  determined  to  carry  on  the  struggle,  and 
that  economic  efficiency  is  a  tremendous  force  at  their  com- 
mand. Germany  will  fight  until  her  citizens  realize  that  the 
cause  is  hopeless. 

"And  here  lies  the  greatest  obstruction  to  an  early  peace. 
Of  all  the  peoples  involved,  those  of  Germany  are  the  least  im- 
pressionable by  facts  and  conditions  outside  of  their  actual  ex- 
perience. Their  patriotism,  in  the  first  place,  is  an  exalted 
passion,  a  veritable  religion,  the  prime  teaching  of  which  is 
racial  superiority  and  the  certainty  of  Teutonic  domination. 

"A  rigid  censorship  and  habitual  veneration  for  authority 
lead  them  to  accept  implicitly  the  views  of  the  government,  and 
the  official  interpretation  of  events  is  never  questioned.  To  this 
day  no  German,  so  far  as  is  known,  doubts  that  the  war  was 
forced  upon  them;  that  the  invasion  and  laying  waste  of  Bel- 


454  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

gium  were  just  measures  of  defense,  while  Turkey  is  defending 
Western  civilization  against  Asiatic  barbarism;  and  that  the 
German  retreat  from  Paris  was  a  subtle  victory  over  the  enemy. 
The  capture  of  Calais  is  still  awaited  with  cheerful  expectancy, 
and  the  killing  of  a  few  civilians  with  airship  bombs  is  hailed 
with  joy  as  a  terrific  blow  at  the  British  Empire. 

"Those  who  look  for  a  popular  German  demand  for  peace  will 
have  to  wait  a  long  time.  Public  opinion  is  not  only  unin- 
formed regarding  the  war,  but  it  is  disciplined;  and  it  is  in- 
spired by  a  devotion  to  national  ideals  which  require  the  sur- 
render of  all  individual  desires  to  purposes  of  state. 

"We  see  no  indications  that  Germany  can  defeat  her  enemies. 
But  so  long  as  her  armies  are  in  Poland,  in  Belgium  and  in 
France  and  her  people  are  self-supporting,  what  reason  is  there 
to- expect  that  she  will  yield?  If,  then,  her  defeat  depends  upon 
a  successful  invasion  of  her  territory,  it  is  reasonably  clear  that 
we  are  discussing,  not  the  approaching  end  of  the  war,  but  its 
real  beginning." 

I  am  of  the  opinion  of  Powys,  who  says:  (259) 

"They  fight  fiercely,  these  philosophers  of  the  all-dominant 
state.  And  they  fight  fiercely  because,  as  Munsterberg  says, 
'In  the*  German  view  the  state  is  not  for  the  individual,  but  the 
individuals  for  the  state'  because  'the  ideal  state  unit,  which 
has  existence  only  in  the  belief  of  the  individuals,  is  felt  as 
higher  and  more  important  than  those  chance  personalities 
which  enter  into  it.' 

"But  the  Allies  are  ready  to  fight  more  fiercely  still,  because, 
from  their  point  of  view,  there  is  something  higher  and  more 
important  than  any  state  or  any  group  of  states ;  because,  above 
all  state-craft  and  above  all  state-machinery,  are  the  freedom 
and  liberty  of  the  human  soul ;  because  the  liberty  of  the  human 
soul  demands  that  no  machinery,  however  disciplined  and  effi- 
cient, shall  enslave  it,  and  no  strength,  however  formidable, 
shall  narrow  the  largeness  of  its  hope." 

The  French  Premier,  with  the  unanimous  and  enthusi- 
astic support  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  says :  (260) 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  455 

"France,  acting  in  accord  with  her  allies,  will  not  sheathe 
her  arms  until  after  taking  vengeance  for  outraged  right;  until 
she  has  united  for  all  time  to  the  French  fatherland  the  prov- 
inces ravished  from  her  by  force ;  restored  heroic  Belgium  to  the 
fullness  of  her  material  life  and  her  political  independence,  and 
until  Prussian  militarism  has  been  crushed,  to  the  end  that  it 
be  possible  to  reconstruct,  on  a  basis  of  justice,  a  Europe  regen- 
erated. .  .  . 

"In  spite  of  a  war  which  is  shaking  and  impoverishing  the 
world,  the  French  banknote  is  accepted  at  a  premium;  the  dis- 
counting of  commercial  paper  grows  daily,  and  the  totals  ob- 
tained from  indirect  taxation  increase.  All  this  is  a  manifesta- 
tion of  the  economic  strength  of  a  country  which  has  adapted 
itself  with  facility  to  the  difficulties  arising  from  a  deep-seated 
trouble  and  which  declares  before  the  entire  world  that  the  con- 
dition of  its  finances  will  permit  it  to  continue  the  war  until 
that  day  when  the  necessary  compensation  shall  be  obtained. 

"Gentlemen,  the  day  of  final  victory  has  not  yet  come,  and 
until  it  does  our  task  will  be  one  of  great  difficulty.  The  way 
may  be  long,  and  for  this  let  us  prepare  our  spirits  and  be  ever 
courageous.  We  have  inherited  the  greatest  burden  of  glory 
that  any  people  can  carry.  Already  the  country  has  agreed  to 
make  every  sacrifice  that  this  duty  entails. 

"If  this  contest  is  the  most  gigantic  ever  recorded  in  history, 
it  is  not  because  the  people  are  hurling  themselves  into  warfare 
to  conquer  territory,  to  win  enlargement  of  material  life  and 
economic  and  political  advantages,  but  because  they  are  strug- 
gling to  determine  the  fate  of  the  world. 

"Nothing  greater  has  ever  appeared  before  the  vision  of  man. 
Against  barbarity  and  despotism;  against  the  system  of  provo- 
cations and  methodical  menaces  which  Germany  called  peace; 
against  the  system  of  murder  and  pillage  which  Germany  called 
war;  against  the  insolent  hegemony  of  a  military  caste  which 
loosed  the  tseourge,  France  the  emancipator,  France  the  venge- 
ful, at  the  side  of  her  allies,  arose  and  advanced  to  the  fray. 

"That  is  the  stake.  It  is  greater  than  our  lives.  Let  us  con- 
tinue, then,  to  have  but  one  united  soul,  and  to-morrow,  in  the 
peace  of  victory,  we  shall  recall  with  pride  these  days  of 
tragedy,  for  they  will  have  made  of  us  more  valorous  and  better 
men." 


456  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

From  England  comes  from  innumerable  sources,  the 
same  note  of  stern  resolve,  best  perhaps  shown  by  Lord 
Kitchener's  grim  but  epigrammatic  reply  to  the  question : 
"When  do  you  think  the  war  will  end?"  "I  don't  know, 
but  it  will  begin  in  May!" 

There  is  no  scrap  of  authentic  information  from  Eussia 
(p.  336),  or  from  Japan,  that  does  not  indicate  the  same 
indomitable  purpose. 

Sweden  is  said  to  be  pro-German,  influenced  by  her 
fear  of  Eussian  aggression.  I  have  had  private  letters 
from  Swedes,  living  in  London,  in  which — but  regretfully 
— they  confirm  this  view. 

As  to  Norway  and  Denmark,  a  well-known  Scandina- 
vian, Hanna  Astrup  Larsen,  writes:  (261) 

"The  integrity  of  Norway  is  officially  guaranteed  by  the  In- 
tegrity Treaty  of  1907,  which  England,  Germany,  France  and 
Russia  have  signed  for  a  period  of  ten  years.  Among  these 
signatories,  England  is  the  one  to  which  Norwegians  look  as 
their  especial  protector  against  aggression  from  any  other 
Power.  It  is  true  that  they,  in  common  with  the  Danes  and 
Swedes,  feel  the  warmest  sympathy  and  the  most  intense  admi- 
ration for  the  French  people  and  for  French  culture,  but  France 
is  too  far  away  to  enter  into  the  political  calculations  of  the 
North.  .  .  . 

"Encroaching  Germans  have  pushed  the  Danes  back  from  the 
lands  south  of  the  Baltic  which  they  once  held — in  the  thir- 
teenth century,  under  Valdemar  the  Victorious — almost  as  far 
east  as  the  site  of  Petrograd.  In  modern  times  they  have  been  con- 
fined to  the  peninsula  of  Jutland  and  the  adjacent  islands,  and 
fifty  years  ago  Germany  seized  by  force  of  arms  Schleswig- 
Holstein,  forming  the  base  of  the  peninsula.  In  Schleswig, 
which  the  Danes  still  call  South  Jutland,  the  work  of  German- 
izing has  been  carried  on  ruthlessly.  It  is  forbidden  to  sing 
Danish  patriotic  songs,  to  display  Danish  colors,  and  to  hold 
meetings  in  the  Danish  language.  Recently  difficulties  have 
been  placed  in  the  way  of  Danish-speaking  citizens  owning 
land  or  engaging  servants.  Geographical  names  have  been 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  "WAR  457 

given  a  German  twist.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  the  custom- 
ary restrictions  were  sharpened;  Danish  newspapers  were  sup- 
pressed and  the  editors  put  into  jail  at  the  very  moment  when 
thousands  of  their  kinsmen  were  fighting  loyally  in  the  German 
army." 

These  seem  significant  words  at  this  juncture,  coming 
from  such  a  source. 

So  far  as  America  is  concerned,  the  opinion  has  been 
voiced  over  and  over  again  that  we  cannot  afford  to  per- 
mit a  final  German  triumph.  (See  pp.  340-47.) 

One  of  the  most  influential  of  our  papers  (262)  begins 
a  most  eloquent  and  informing  editorial,  as  follows: 

"Germany  is  doomed  to  sure  defeat.  Bankrupt  in  statesman- 
ship, overmatched  in  arms,  under  the  moral  condemnation  of 
the  civilized  world,  befriended  only  by  the  Austrian  and  the 
Turk,  two  backward-looking  and  dying  nations,  desperately  bat- 
tling against  the  hosts  of  three  great  Powers  to  which  help 
and  reinforcement  from  states  now  neutral  will  certainly  come 
should  the  decision  be  long  deferred,  she  pours  out  the  blood  of 
her  heroic  subjects  and  wastes  her  diminishing  substance  in  a 
hopeless  struggle  that  postpones  but  cannot  alter  the  fatal 
decree.  .  .  . 

"A  million  Germans  have  been  sacrificed,  a  million  German 
homes  are  desolate.  Must  other  millions  die  and  yet  other 
millions  mourn  before  the  people  of  Germany  take  in  the  court 
of  reason  and  human  liberty  their  appeal  from  the  imperial  and 
military  caste  that  rushes  them  to  their  ruin? 

"They  have  their  full  justification  in  the  incompetence  and 
failure  of  their  rulers.  German  diplomacy  and  German  militar- 
ism have  broken  down.  The  blundering  incapacity  of  the  Kaiser's 
counselors  and  servants  in  statecraft  at  Berlin  and  in  foreign 
capitals  committed  Germany  to  a  war  against  the  joined 
might  of  England,  France  and  Russia.  .  .  . 

"Wilhelm  II  was  wretchedly  served  at  Vienna  by  an  Ambas- 
sador blinded  by  Russophobia,  at  St.  Petersburg  by  another  who 
advised  his  home  government  that  Russia  would  not  go  to  war, 
and  at  London  by  the  muddling  Lichnowsky,  whose  first  guesses 


458  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

were  commonly  wrong  and  his  second  too  late  to  be  serviceable. 
Germany  literally  forced  an  alliance  for  this  war  between  Eng- 
land and  Russia,  two  Powers  often  antagonistic  in  the  past  and 
having  now  no  common  interest  save  the  curbing  of  Germany. 
The  terrible  mis  judgment  of  the  General  Staff  hurled  Germany 
headlong  into  the  pit  that  incompetent  diplomacy  had  prepared. 
The  empire  went  to  war  with  three  great  nations  able  to  meet 
her  with  forces  more  than  double  her  own.  .  .  . 

"The  world  cannot,  will  not,  let  Germany  win  in  this  war. 
With  her  dominating  all  Europe  peace  and  security  would 
vanish  from  the  earth.  A  few  months  ago  the  world  only  dimly 
comprehended  Germany,  now  it  knows  her  thoroughly.  So  if 
England,  France  and  Russia  cannot  prevail  against  her,  Italy, 
with  her  two  millions,  the  sturdy  Hollanders,  the  Swiss,  hard 
men  in  a  fight,  the  Danes,  the  Greeks  and  the  men  of  the  Bal- 
kans* will  come  to  their  aid  and  make  sure  that  the  work  is 
finished,  once  for  all.  For  their  own  peace  and  safety  the  na- 
tions must  demolish  that  towering  structure  of  militarism  in 
the  center  of  Europe  that  has  become  the  world's  danger-spot, 
its  greatest*  menace. 

"The  only  possible  ending  of  the  war  is  through  the  defeat  of 
Germany.  .  .  . 

"We  have  aimed  here  to  make  clear  the  certainty  of  Ger- 
many's* defeat  and  to  show  that  if  she  chooses  to  fight  to  the 
bitter  end  her  ultimate  and  sure  overthrow  will  leave  her  bled 
to  exhaustion,  drained  of  her  resources,  and  under  sentence  to 
penalties  of  which  the  stubbornness  of  her  futile  resistance  will 
measure  the  severity.  We  could  wish  that  the  German  people, 
seeing  the  light,  might  take  timely  measures  to  avert  the  calam- 
ities that  await  them. 

"It  may  well  be  doubted  that  they  will  see  the  light.  But 
have  not  the  men  of  German  blood  in  this  country  a  duty  to  per- 
form to  their  beleaguered  brethren  in  the  old  home  ?  Americans 
of  German  birth  or  of  German  descent  should  see  and  feel  the 
truth  about  the  present  position  of  Germany,  the  probability  for 
the  near,  the  certainty  for  the  remoter,  future.  At  home  the 
Germans  cannot  know  the  whole  truth;  it  is  not  permitted 
them  to  know  it.  It  will  be  unfraternal  and  most  cruel  for 
German- Americans  further  to  keep  the  truth  from  them,  or  to 
fail  in  their  plain  duty  to  make  known  to  them  how  low  the 
imperial  and  militaristic  ideal  has  fallen  in  the  world's  esteem, 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  459 

and  to  bring  them  to  understand  that  the  enemies  they  now 
confront  are  biit  the  first  line  of  civilization's  defenses  against 
the  menace  f  the  sword  that  forever  rattles  in  its  scabbard. 
The  sword  must  go,  the  scabbard,  too,  and  the  shining  armor. 
If  the  Germans  here  have  at  all  the  ear  of  the  Germans  there, 
can  they  not  tell  them  so  ?  They  have  come  here  to  escape  the 
everlasting  din  of  war's  trappings ;  they  have  come  to  find  peace 
and  quiet  in  a  land  of  liberty  and  law,  where  government  rests 
on  the  consent  of  the  governed,  where  the  people  by  their 
chosen  representatives,  when  there  is  a  question  of  going  into 
the  trenches  to  be  slain,  have  something  to  say  about  it.  Have 
they  ever  tried  to  get  into  the  heads  of  their  friends  in  the 
Fatherland  some  idea  of  the  comforts  and  advantages  of  being 
governed  in  that  way?  Instead  of  vainly  trying  to  change 
the  well-matured  convictions  of  the  Americans,  why  not  labor 
for  the  conversion  of  their  brother  Germans?" 

Are  there  any  indications  that  to-day  justify  the  con- 
fidence thus  expressed  ? 

I  have  a  letter  from  a  friend  (263)  setting  forth  some 
facts  that  seem  to  him,  and  to  me,  of  possible  significance. 
He  writes  in  part: 

"My  wife  and  I  were  immuned  in  Munich  during  the  two 
weeks  of  the  mobilization  of  the  Bavarian  Army,  and  we  saw 
practically  the  whole  of  this  splendid  body  of  troops  go  to  the 
war.  My  impression  is  that  they  first  appeared  at  the  front 
in  the  east  of  France,  but  shortly  afterwards  were  shifted  to 
Belgium  where  the  dispatches  constantly  referred  to  them  as 
bearing  the  brunt  of  the  fighting  against  the  English  and  Bel- 
gians. Some  time  in  September  there  was  published  in  the 
Philadelphia  papers  a  telegraphic  dispatch  to  the  effect  that 
certain  Prussian  soldiers  and  officers  had  used  insulting  lan- 
guage in  reference  to  the  Belgian  Queen,  who  is  a  Bavarian 
princess.  Some  of  the  Bavarian  soldiers  resented  this,  and  a 
fight  ensued.  As  a  result  some  Bavarian  soldiers  or  officers 
were  courtmartialed  and  shot.  Not  a  great  while  after  this 
it  was  stated  that  the  Kaiser  had  said  that  his  greatest  wish 
was  that  the  English  Army  should  encounter  his  brave 


460  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

Bavarians.  Subsequently  it  was  given  out  that  the  Kaiser 
had  said  that  Dunkirk  must  be  taken  whatever  might  be  the 
cost  of  men,  and  the  men  were  said  to  be  the  Bavarians.  Late 
in  October  or  early  in  November  there  was  a  statement  pub- 
lished that  over  two  hundred  Bavarians  had  revolted,  but  had 
been  overcome  and  sent  to  Aix-la-Chappelle  for  trial.  Nothing 
else  has  been  heard  about  these  men.  About  that  time  the  dis- 
patches ceased  to  mention  the  Bavarians  as  opposing  the  English 
Army,  but  mention  began  to  be  made  of  the  Prussian  Guard 
opposing  the  English.  Apparently  the  Bavarian  Army  had  been 
destroyed. 

"About  three  weeks  ago  a  statement  came  from  Munich  to 
the  effect  that  the  chief  of  police  of  Munich  had  posted  notices 
throughout  the  city  to  the  effect  that  if  citizens  were  found 
criticising  the  conduct  of  the  war  they  would  be  subjected  to 
a  year's  imprisonment.  Last  week  there  was  published  in  the 
Evening  Telegraph  a  statement  alleged  to  have  been  made  by  a 
German  gentleman  who  had  traveled  throughout  Germany,  that 
things  were  in  a  normal  condition,  and  the  people  satisfied, 
except  that  in  the  cafes  of  Munich  there  was  much  discussion 
of  the  unfair  treatment  to  which  the  Bavarian  Army  had  been 
subjected. 

"In  to-day's  Ledger  there  is  a  statement  that  ninety  Bavarian 
soldiers,  part  of  the  garrison  of  Antwerp,  had  mutinied  and 
were  to  be  courtmartialed.  Later  I  read  that  'a  dispatch  to  the 
Handelsblad  from  Antwerp  says  reports  are  current  in  Antwerp 
of  a  mutiny  on  the  part  of  the  Bavarian  troops  garrisoning  the 
city.  While  the  report  is  not  confirmed,  it  is  a  fact  that  the 
Bavarian  barracks  have  been  closed  to  outsiders.' 

"Another  report  states  that  a  number  of  Belgian  prisoners 
have  escaped  from  Brussels  with  the  connivance  of  Bavarian 
troops,  the  latter  having  been  influenced  by  their  affection  for 
their  former  princess,  the  Queen  of  Belgium. 

"Whatever  may  be  the  truth  of  some  of  the  statements  re- 
counted above,  it  is  very  obvious  that  the  Bavarian  Army  has 
been  greatly  exposed,  and  that  the  soldiers  in  its  ranks  and 
their  friends  at  home  have  been  aggrieved.  It  is  possible  that 
like  Captain  Uriah  of  old  the  Bavarians  were  put  in  the  front 
by  the  Prussian  General  Staff  to  be  slaughtered.  The  long  po- 
litical antagonism  of  Bavaria  to  Prussia  would  furnish  a 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  461 

ground,   although  not   a  justification,   for  such  action  by  the 
military  authorities  in/  Berlin." 

All  this,  I  admit,  is  vague,  inconclusive,  and  possibly, 
as  my  correspondent  knew  and  said,  not  even  in  accord 
with  facts.  On  the  other  hand  it  may  be  an  indication  of 
"the  little  rift  within  the  lute/3  or,  to  change  the  simile, 
of  a  defect  in-  the  casting,  which  might  ultimately  make 
evenj  a  Krupp  siege  gun  a  source  of  danger  or  death  to 
its  possessors. 

I  note,  also,  that  at  this  writing:  (264) 

"Maximum  prices  for  many  metals  have  been  fixed  by  the 
Bundesrath,  such  as  aluminum,  antimony,  copper,  and  nickel. 
Another  disturbing  fact  is  the  scarcity  of  saltpeter  and  other 
nitrogenous  salts.  The  government  is  making  every  effort  to 
prevent  this  situation  from  causing  uneasiness  in  the  public 
mind  and  recently  suppressed  an  issue  of  its  own  organ,  the 
Norddeutsche  Allegemeine  Zeitung,  as  well  as  one  of  the  Berlin 
military  journals,  the  Kreuzzeitwig,  for  printing  resolutions  on 
this  subject  passed  by  the  Brandenburg  Chamber  of  Agricul- 
ture. One  of  these  offending  resolutions,  as  published  in  the 
Kreuzzeitung ,  runs,  in  part: 

"  'A  great  danger  for  Germany  lies  in  the  fact  that,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  war,  Germany  is  deprived  of  the  import  of  salt- 
peter. This  is  a  serious  danger,  because  a  lack  of  nitrogen,  such 
as  exists  at  present,  causes  a  considerable  diminution  in  the 
yield  of  the  harvest;  and,  secondly,  because  the  production  of 
the  necessary  quantities  of  ammunition  and  explosives  may  con- 
sequently be  imperiled.  It  seems  desirable,  therefore,  that  the 
Imperial  Government  should  take  steps  to  assure  permanently 
Germany's  supply  of  nitrogenous  salts." 

I  also  note  that  Die   Gleichheit,  a  Socialist  woman's 
paper,  published  in  Stuttgart,  says:  (265) 

"Like  a  child's  soap-bubble,  which  bursts  at  a  touch,  so  has 
the  legend  been  dissipated  that  the  war  would  be  a  short  'mili- 


462  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

tary  promenade'  to  Paris  and  Petrograd.  We  know  that  we  are 
in  the  midst  of  a  world-war  which  will  last  a  very  long  time, 
and  we  must  face  the  fact  that  Germany  for  many  months  to 
come  will  remain  cut  off  from  commercial  intercourse  with  other 
nations,  and  will  be  compelled  to  feed  her  own  people  from  her 
own  reserves.  .  . 

"Millions  of  women,  children,  aged  parents,  and  people  in 
weak  health  must  henceforth  rely  for  their  means  of  existence 
upon  the  pittances  they  receive  from  public  funds  and 
charity.  .  .  . 

"The  cattle  are  fed — the  poor  man  cannot  buy  food. 

"Millions  are  in  want;  millions  more  trembling  before  the 
menace  of  greater  hardships  still  to  come.  In  the  hour  of  the 
greatest  danger  .speculators  are  profiting  by  the  wretchedness 
of  the  poor. 

"These  facts  are  officially  confirmed.     ..." 

An  American,  long  domiciled  in  Germany,  says:  (266) 

"I  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  supply  of  gunpowder 
is  causing  the  General  Staff  the  gravest  anxiety.  They  lack  the 
saltpeter  and  nitrates  necessary  for  its  manufacture.  They 
carefully  avoid  giving  direct  answers  to  all  questions  on  this 
subject,  and  prefer  to  turn  them  away  with  some  feeble  excuse. 
When  asked  why  they  are  using  old  ammunition  they  say,  'We 
wish  to  get  rid  of  it.' 

"I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  there  are  not  still  immense  re- 
serves of  ammunition  in  the  country,  but  from  my  inquiries 
I  am  convinced  that,  even  on  a  scale  vastly  below  that  of  the 
present  time,  they  will,  for  this  reason  alone,  be  unable  to  carry 
on  the  war  after  next  June.  I  am  sure  that  the  most  vital 
considerations  of  this  struggle  are  Germany's  lack  of  copper 
and  gunpowder,  or  the  essentials  necessary  to  make  the  various 
explosives  now  in  use." 

Early  in  the  war,  Mr.  Frederick  William  Wile  denied 
the  alleged  "unity"  of  Germany,  which  was  announced  to 
include  the  four  million  avowed  Socialists  on  the  strength 
chiefly  of  certain  votes  in  the  Reichstag.  This  article 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  "WAR  463 

(267)   was  prefaced  by  the  following  editorial  statement 
as  to  its  author: 

"At  the  outbreak  of  the  present  war  Mr.  Wile  had  a  narrow 
escape  from  Berlin.  Although  an  American,  and  well  known 
at  the  hotel  where  he  was  temporarily  staying,  he  was  de- 
nounced as  an  English  spy,  roughly  handled,  taken  to  the  police 
presidency,  and  was  in  peril  of  being  shot,  as  Russians  and 
French  had  been.  He  was  released  only  upon  the  summary 
action  of  the  American  Ambassador,  Mr.  Gerard,  and  found  safe 
exit  from  Germany  only  through  the  great  courtesy  of  the 
British  Ambassador,  who  permitted  him  to  leave  on  the  train 
on  which  he  himself  departed  under  safe  conduct." 

Mr.  Wile  says : 

"There  are  sixty-six  million  Germans.  Sixty-five  million  of 
them  did  not  want  war.  The  other  million  are  the  War  Party. 
That  their  influence  immeasurably  outruns  their  numerical 
strength  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  they  not  only  wanted 
war  but  got  it.  The  voice  of  the  sixty-five  million  was  as  one 
crying  in  the  wilderness.  It  has  always  been  so  in  Prussianized, 
militarized  Germany. 

"No  list-  of  members  of  the  War  Party  has  ever  been  pub- 
lished. It  has  no  official  existence.  But  who  compose  it  and 
what  it  has  stood  for  are  an  open  book.  The  Kaiser  would  deny 
the  most  vehemently  of  all  that  he  is  affiliated  with  the  Kriegs- 
partei.  Unfortunately,  his  speeches  -are  against  him.  He  has 
talked  too  much  and  too  often  of  his  martial  ambitions,  has  set 
the  world  too  frequently  by  the  ears  with  his  blatant  apotheoses 
of  Mars  and  Neptune,  to  merit  the  diadem  of  a  peace  prince. 
William  IPs  ebullient  son  and  heir,  the  Crown  Prince,  is  an 
avowed,  adherent,  almost  the  arch-priest,  of  the  War  Party. 
His  fellow-members  are,  first  of  all,  the  corps  of  officers  of  the 
German  army,  a  body  of  40,000'  or  50,000>  spurred  and  epauleted 
martinets,  who  have  never  ceased  to  pray  for  war.  These  gen- 
tlemen of  the  goose-step,  through  their  paramount  position  in 
German  society,  have  infected  the  entire  so-called  upper  class 
with  their  belligerent  views.  The  War  Party,  therefore,  in- 
cludes German  uppertendom.  It  embraces  the  intellectuals  of 


464  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

the  empire — the  professorial  element  at  the  great  universities, 
the  Delbriicks,  the  Wagners,  the  Schmollers,  the  Harnacks, 
and  all  the  other  super-patriots  who  tread  in  the  path  blazed 
by  Treitschke,  the  prophet  of  this,  Germany's  'final  reckoning' 
with  Europe. 

"Following  idolatrously  in  the  trail  of  the  political  professors 
are  the  undergraduates  of  the  'varsities,  or  at  least  that  over- 
whelming majority  affiliated  with  the  Corps,  Verbindungen,  or 
Burschenschaften,  the  equivalent  of  our  own  fraternities.  It  was 
these  youthful  spirits  "who  have  had  the  saeredness  of  war 
drilled  into  their  souls  in  classroom,  who  ran  shrieking,  Krieg! 
Krieg!'  through  Unter  den  Linden  in  the  feverish  nights  pre- 
ceding the  actual  launching  of  the  Kaiser's  thunderbolts  on  the 
East  and  West.  In  the  War  Party,  too,  are  the  Prussian  Jun- 
ker in  his  thousands,  the  agrarian  land  barons  of  Pomerania, 
East  Elbia,  Brandenburg,  and  Silesia — the  Germans  who  look 
upon  themselves  as  the  salt  of  the  Teuton  earth,  the  props  of 
divine  right,  and  the  monopolists  of  power  and  position  in  mod- 
ern Germany.  And  last,  but  noisiest,  are  the  armchair  war- 
riors of  the  Fatherland,  the  retired  generals  and  admirals  and 
colonels  and  naval  captains  whose  very  names  are  a  programme 
and  a  menace — Bernhardi,  Breusing,  Reventlow,  Frobenius, 
Keim  of  the  Army  League,  von  Koester  of  the  Navy  League, 
and  hundreds  less  notorious.  .  .  . 

"If  I  thus  far  seem  radical  in  expression  and  harsh,  let  me 
deal  forthwith  with  the  sixty-five  mute,  meek  millions  of  the 
Fatherland  who  craved  for  peace.  For  years  they  have  been 
excoriated  by  the  War  Party  as  a  craven,  corroding  influence, 
destitute  of  patriotism,  ignorant  of  'the  real  foundation  of 
German  greatness,'  an  element  which  was  retarding  the  Father- 
land in  the  march  to  her  predestined  goal,  attainable  only  by 
the  employment  of  siege  guns  and  dreadnoughts. 

"These  mute  and  meek  millions,  I  say,  did  not  want  war. 
They  wanted  peace  and  a  continuance  of  the  bounding  pros- 
perity which  had  brought  Germany  to  the  pinnacle  of  economic 
might.  They  wanted  their  army  and  navy  to  be  that  which  the 
Kaiser  had  grandiloquently  boasted  they  were,  and  only  that — 
bulwarks  of  peace,  not  engines  of  war.  These  were  the  senti- 
ments of  the  German  public  up  to  the  very  hour  war  descended 
upon  their  inoffensive  heads.  They  cared  not  a  fig  for  Sarajevo 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  465 

beyond  the  wave  of  human  sympathy  and  horror  which  wanton 
murder  always  produces.  They  believed,  many  of  them,  that 
the  question  as  to  who  should  prevail  in  Europe,  German  or 
Slav,  must  some  day  find  a  sanguinary  solution;  but  they  did 
not  look  upon  the  assassination  of  Archduke  Franz  Ferdinand 
and  his  consort  as  the  occasion  for  forcing  the  solution.  It 
was  only  when  the  Austrian  demands  on  blood-stained  Servia 
brought  Armageddon  measurably  near — made  it,  as  we  have 
seen,  in  fact,  inevitable — that  German  public  opinion,  shrewdly 
molded,  suddenly,  reluctantly,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
conflict  between  German  and  Slav  might  as  well  be  fought  out 
in  this  year  of  grace. 

"I  make  bold  to  proclaim  that  the  Germans  went  into  this 
bloody  business  with  a  heavy  heart.  I  heard  their  reservists 
singing  'Die  Wacht  am  Rhein'  as  they  began  their  march  to 
death  and  glory  from  city,  town,  and  hamlet.  I  saw  flaxen- 
haired  Prussian  maidens  tossing  roses  to  guards  and  Uhlans  as 
they  started  for  the  front,  from  which  thousands  of  them  will 
never  return.  But  everywhere  and  always  I  found  bearing  down 
the  spirit  of  the  German,  though  only  infrequently  expressed 
by  word  of  mouth,  the  sentiment  that  the  war  was  unnecessary, 
cruel,  unintelligible,  that  it  ought  not  to  have  been." 

Another  American,  Prof.  Maurice  Parmelee,  who  holds 
the  chair  of  Sociology  and  Economics  in  the  College  of 
the  City  of  New  York,  has  described  (268)  the  impres- 
sion made  upon  him  when  in  the  late  afternoon  of  July 
31,  the  Kaiser  in  person  announced  to  the  people  of  Ber- 
lin the  critical  situation.  Prof.  Parmelee  was  in  the 
crowd  that  had  awaited  for  hours  in  front  of  the  royal 
palace.  He  says: 

"Finally,  at  about  six  o'clock  the  doors  again  opened  and  the 
Kaiser  appeared  upon  the  balcony.  After  the  cheering  had 
subsided,  he  read  twice  over  in  a  loud,  clear  voice  a  short  speech 
which  he  held  in  his  hand.  The  substance  of  it  was  that  he  had 
tried  to  keep  the  peace,  but  had  been  deceived  by  the  Czar,  and 
now  might  God  help  the  brave  German  army  in  the  fight.  After 
bowing  again  to  the  crowd,  he  disappeared.  .  .  . 

30 


466  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"It  is  impossible  to  describe  adequately  this  remarkable 
scene  in  writing,  or  indeed  in  any  way.  I  might  say  that  its 
principal  impression  upon  me  was  that  of  its  pathos.  It  was 
pathetic,  in  the  first  place,  because  of  the  trust  and  confidence 
these  people  displayed  in  their  Kaiser.  It  was  evident  that  they 
depended  upon  him  to  decide  what  to  do.  But  it  was  pathetic 
far  more  because  it  was  evident  that  they  realized  that  their 
country  was  facing  a  very  serious  crisis,  and  this  fact  awed  and 
probably  frightened  them.  To  keep  up  their  courage  they  stim- 
ulated their  patriotism  by  singing  patriotic  songs  and  cheering 
the  royal  family." 

One  of  the  best  known  and  most  influential  of  American 
editors  and  publicists,  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  still  made, 
after  nearly  six  months  had  elapsed,  a  similar  distinction 
between  the  "leaders"  and  the  "people  of  Germany."  He 
said:  (269) 

"This  imposition  by  force  of  what  she  considers  to  be  political 
and  social  virtue  is  exactly,  it  seems  to  me,  the  fundamental 
purpose  of  Germany  in  the  present  European  war.  I  do  not 
mean  that  the  German  people  are  conscious  of  this  purpose ;  but 
that  the  German  leaders  are  conscious  of  it  I  think  there  is  no 
question.  One  of  the  pathetic  things  about  the  war  is  that  the 
mass  of  the  German  people  have  been  convinced  by  their  mili- 
tary leaders  that  they  are  fighting  to  defend  their  hearths  and 
homes.  They  had  to  be  convinced  that  they  were  on  the  de- 
fensive in  order  that  they  might  be  persuaded  to  make  war  at 
all,  for  the  mas-s  of  the  German  people  are  lovers  of  peace.  But 
the  leaders  of  modern  Germany  wish  to  dominate  Europe — the 
militarists  for  power's  sake,  the  industrialists  for  the  sake  of 
commerce,  and  the  intellectuals  for  the  sake  of  imposing  Ger- 
man ideals  upon  the  world." 

After  four  months  of  war  an  American  Socialist,  Mr. 
William  Walling,  rejected  the  assumption  of  "absolute 
unity"  and  gave  some  of  his  reasons  for  believing  it  un- 
warranted. (270) 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  467 

He  began  with  quotations  from  the  German  Chancellor 
and  the  German  Ambassador  to  this  country: 

"In  this  war  social  differences  have  disappeared;  even  the 
Social  Democrats  stand  behind  us." — Von  Bethmann-Holkveg, 
Chancellor  of  the  German  Empire. 

"It  is  one  of  the  fundamental  errors  of  American  newspapers 
that  this  is  a  war  of  kings.  Most  emphatically  it  is  a  war  of 
the  German  people.  If  any  proof  is  needed  for  this  statement, 
look  at  the  attitude  of  the  leaders  of  the  German  Social  Demo- 
crats, who  are  loyally  supporting  the  Emperor." — Cowtit  von 
Bernstorff,  German  Ambassador  to  the  United  States. 

He  continued: 

"It  is  evident  from  these  and  many  similar  statements  from 
the  highest  authorities  that  the  German  Government  bases  its 
case  largely  on  the  claim  that  the  German  people  are  unani- 
mously behind  it  in  this  war. 

"Unfortunately,  the  German  Government,  which  has  failed 
to  impress  the  public  of  the  neutral  countries  with  many  of  its 
arguments,  has  apparently  succeeded  in  this  instance.  Hardly 
an  important  article,  editorial,  or  opinion  of  the  war  fails  to 
state  or  to  assume  that  popular  sentiment  in  Germany  is,  in- 
deed, unanimous.  Whatever  doubts  existed  seem  to  have  been 
entirely  removed  a«s  it  became  generally  known  that  on  August 
4th,  when  the  war  was  already  going  on  in  France,  when  Bel- 
gium was  invaded,  and  the  German  people  were  aware  of  both 
these  facts,  the  Social  Democrats  in  the  Reichstag  allowed  the 
Socialist  vote  to  be  cast  solidly  for  the  war  loan  of  five  billion 
marks  and  permitted  a  declaration  which  said  that  they  re- 
garded the  war  as  a  purely  defensive  -struggle  against  Russian 
despotism. 

"But  if  we  look  into  the  events  leading  up  to  this  action  of 
the  4th  of  August;  if  we  look  closely  into  the  councils  of  the 
party  during  the  first  days  of  the  war;  and,  above  all,  if  we 
take  note  of  the  position  of  the  party  organ,  Vorwaerts,  since 
the  war  began,  we  ishall  see  indications  that  the  German  people 
are  by  no  means  unitedly  for  the  war,  and  that  the  four  million 
Socialists  are  split  badly  on  the  question.  While  admitting  the 


468  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

undeniable  fact  that  the  Socialist  majority  did  give  its  financial 
and  moral  support  to  the  Kaiser,  we  shall  discover  that  there 
is  already  a  very  large  minority  against  the  war.  .  .  . 

"Even  since  the  declaration  of  war,  under  the  very  eyes  of  the 
military  censor,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  terrors  of  martial 
law,  Vorwaerts  has  cleverly  managed  to  continue  its  anti- 
military  agitation.  Frequent  cables  have  shown  the  general 
recognition  of  the  value  of  its  work,  and  its  anti-war  trend  has 
been  widely  recognized.  On  Monday,  August  3rd,  when  the 
Social-Democratic  group  in  the  Reichstag  decided  to  vote  in 
favor  of  the  war  budget,  Vorwaerts  printed  an  article  condemn- 
ing German  'patriotism'  and  the  'patriots'  who  had  suddenly 
become  warriors  fighting  for  'freedom  against  Czarism.' 

"The  article,  which  is  entitled  'War  Against  Czarism,'  ex- 
poses the  fallacy  of  this  so-called  'Russian  peril.' 

"  'Russia  to-day  is  no  longer  a  stronghold  of  reaction,  but  a 
land  of  revolution.  The  overthrow  of  the  monarchy  and  of 
Czarism  is  now  the  aim  of  the  Russian  people  in  general,  and 
of  the  Russian  workers  in  particular.' 

"The  article  points  out  that  shortly  before  war  was  declared 
Russia  was  in  the  midst  of  a  revolutionary  blaze  that  was 
sweeping  the  country.  This  menacing  general  strike  had  spread 
until  stopped  by  the  declaration  of  war.  The  Czarism  had  been 
strengthened,  then,  not  weakened,  by  the  declaration  of  war. 

"When  Germany  entered  Belgium,  Vorwaerts  said,  signifi- 
cantly: 'Now  when  the  war  god  reigns  supreme,  not  only  over 
the  time  but  also  over  the  press,  we  cannot  say  concerning  the 
invasion  of  Belgium  what  we  would  like  to  say  about  it.'  On 
August  30th  it  had  the  courage  to  declare  that  the  Belgian 
peasants  ought  not  to  be  'punished,'  as  they  had  been,  for 
defending  their  homes  without  uniforms,  since  the  German 
Landsturm  was  explicitly  permitted  to  do  the  same  thing  ac- 
cording to  the  very  words  of  the  Prussian  law  (p.  301).  The 
real  purpose  of  this  editorial,  as  of  many  others,  was  to  call 
the  attention  of  the  German  soldiers  to  the  fact  that  they  were 
fighting  a  war  of  aggression.  In  Germany  it  raised  a  storm. 

"When  it  became  a  well-established  fact  that  Italy  had  de- 
cided to  break  with  the  Triple  Alliance,  every  'patriotic'  German 
cried  out  against  Germany's  former  ally.  But  Vorwaerts,  in- 
stead of  condemning  Italy,  spoke  enthusiastically  in  favor  of  its 
maintaining  the  position  of  neutrality. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  469 

"When  the  Socialist  leaders  Guesde  and  Sembat,  with  the 
unanimous  approval  of  their  party,  became  members  of  the 
French  Cabinet,  Vorwaerts  pointed  out  that  this  proved  that 
the  French  proletariat  regarded  it  as  a  people's  war,  and  that 
Germany  would  be  able  to  conquer  only  by  conquering  the 
French  proletariat.  .  .  . 

"As  to  Sembat,  Vorwaerts  cites  his  speech  of  the  2d  of 
August,  in  which  he  denned  the  present  war  waged  by  France 
as  one  which  was  aimed  neither  at  conquests  nor  at  the  destruc- 
tion of  German  culture.  This  leads  Vorwaerts  to  remark: 

"  'The  French  nation  is  defending  its  existence,  its  unity,  and 
its  independence. 

"  'Our  comrades  did  not  refuse  the  grave  responsibility  of 
this  momentous  hour.  They  felt  that  the  independence  and 
security  of  the  nation  are  the  first  conditions  of  its  political 
and  social  emancipation,  and  they  did  not  think  it  was  possible 
for  them  to  refuse  their  aid  to  that  country  in  its  struggle  for 
life.' 

"Could  this  be  plainer?  German  territory  and  culture  are 
not  even  attacked,  but  France  is  struggling  for  existence.  No 
wonder  the  Vorwaerts  office  was  mobbed  by  'patriots'  shortly 
after  the  printing  of  this  editorial; 

"Surely  this  approval  of  the  attitude  of  the  French,  Belgian, 
and  Italian  working  people  justified  the  indignation  of  the 
German  ant i- Socialist  press,  which  rightly  pointed  out  that  such 
talk  was  no  way  to  insure  success  in  the  war.  But  Vorwaerts 
ignored  the  attacks  of  its  militarist  enemies — which  twice  led 
to  its  suspension — and  for  two  solid  months  continued  to  use 
every  weapon  in  its  journalistic  arsenal  against  the  supporters 
of  the  war. 

"Another  editorial  that  must  have  infuriated  the  militarists 
was  that  of  August  25th,  in  which,  ably  avoiding  every  possible 
deadlock  with  the  military  authorities,  the  Socialist  organ  yet 
succeeded  in  pointing  out  that  the  supposed  justification  of  the 
war,  that  it  was  a  war  of  defense  against  Russia,  had  fallen 
away  and  that  it  had  become  a  war  of  aggression.  .  .  . 

"The  reader  must  not  get  the  impression  that  I  have  tried  to 
give  a  complete  idea  of  the  work  of  Vorwaerts  against  the  gov- 
ernment and  the  military  faction  that  now  controls  it.  Hardly 
a  day  has  passed  when  the  cables  have  failed  to  mention  one 
or  another  of  its  bold  strokes,  and  a  reference  to  the  paper  itself 


470  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

shows  that  it  has  neglected  no  opportunity.  Repeatedly  it  has 
exposed  the  'lies'  of  the  militarists.  So-called  'atrocities' 
against  the  German  troops  are  shown  to  be  either  absurd  in 
themselves,  or  crafty  inventions,  or  grossly  exaggerated.  Ger- 
man prisoners  are  not  being  mistreated  in  any  of  the  foreign 
countries.  In  a  word,  the  whole  press  campaign  of  the  mili- 
tarists is  repudiated  point  by  point.  Always,  of  course,  the 
point  is  emphasized  that  the  people  of  the  foreign  countries  are 
not  hostile  to  the  people  of  Germany.  Not  only  does  Vorwaerts 
reject  the  militarist  case  in  detail,  but  it  also  rejects  it  as  a 
whole — just  as  it  did  before  the  war.  The  fact  that  all  of  Ger- 
many's leading  litterateurs  and  scientists  have  defended  the 
war  merely  supplies  a  subject  of  ridicule;  one  of  the  poets,  for- 
merly a  democrat,  is  described  as  writing  one  patriotic  poem 
every  day  and  three  on  Sunday,  which,  we  are  reminded,  makes 
nine  a  week.  And  when  Maeterlinck  and  d'Annunzio  are  boy- 
cotted because  they  have  turned  anti-German,  Vorwaerts  iron- 
ically points  out  that  the  discovery  has  suddenly  been  made 
that  they  have  no  literary  merit. 

"Yet  for  the  first  time  since  1894  Socialist  literature,  includ- 
ing Vorwaerts,  has  been  admitted  into  the  barracks,  and  on  Sep- 
tember 2d  special  arrangements  were  made  by  which  it  could 
even  be  sent  into  the  camps  on  the  firing  line.  So  that  the  agi- 
tation I  have  described  has  not  only  reached  the  German  people 
generally,  but  has  been  spread  throughout  the  armies — probably 
the  most  momentous  piece  of  propaganda  ever  accomplished  by 
any  agitation  in  all  history.  Evidently  the  reactionary  govern- 
ment made  these  extraordinary  concessions  from  two  motives. 
It  recognized  the  military  necessity  of  securing  the  enthusiastic 
loyalty  of  the  millions  of  Socialists  who  compose  a  third  of  the 
German  armies,  and  it  assumed  that  the  conservative  Socialists, 
who  had  secured  control  of  the  Reichstag  group  on  August  4th, 
and  those  leaders  who  have  been  brought  into  the  government 
camp  by  the  machinations  of  Bethmann-Hollweg  at  the  secret 
conference  of  the  previous  day,  represented  the  German  Socialist 
movement  as  a  whole.  It  forgot  that  the  Reichstag  members 
are  often  governed  by  political  considerations  which  do  not  in- 
fluence the  Socialist  masses;  that  the  latter  have  put  the  con- 
trol of  the  party,  not  into  the  hands  of  this  group,  but  in  an 
executive  committee  composed  of  a  small  number  of  its  oldest 
and  most  trusted  servants,  including  several  revolutionists; 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  471 

and  that  Vorwaerts  depends  for  its  daily  income  upon  the 
approval  of  the  Socialist  masses,  especially  those  of  Greater 
Berlin  and  central  Germany.  Instead  of  a  tamed  and  loyal 
Socialism  which  it  expected,  'military  necessity,'  then,  has 
caused  to  circulate  throughout  the  army  literary  material  which, 
under  the  present  circumstances,  is  of  the  most  inflammatory 
character.  For  the  Socialists,  including  a  great  proportion  of 
revolutionists,  are  already  there.  All  that  was  necessary  was 
to  remind  them  that  all  the  vast  anti-military  and  anti-monr 
archical  agitation  of  recent  years  still  holds  good  under  present 
conditions,  and  to  bring  this  agitation  down  to  date.  . 

"In  the  month  of  June,  this  year,  at  the  last  act  of  the 
last  session  of  the  Reichstag,  fifty  of  the  Socialist  members 
proved  their  republicanism  by  forcing  the  whole  Socialist  group 
to  remain  seated  and  silent  when  the  President  called  for 
standing  cheers  for  the  Kaiser.  We  may  be  certain  that  in  the 
end  the  section  of  the  party  represented  by  Vorwaerts  and 
these  members  of  the  Reichstag,  in  large  part  at  least,  will 
remain  true  to  the  republican  and  anti-militarist  principles 
of  the  international  Socialist  movement.  And  we  have  every 
reason  to  hope  that  this  army  of  half  a  million,  enlarged  to 
millions  in  the  terrible  hour  of  disillusionment  and  disaster 
that  is  drawing  near,  and  taking  advantage  of  the  disorganiza- 
tion at  the  close  of  the  war,  may  be  able  to  overturn  the  mili- 
tary oligarchy  that  rules  Germany,  and  set  up  in  its  place 
'that  democratic  form  of  government  which  is  the  sole  guar- 
antee of  international  peace." 

Of  course,  the  world  is  agog  as  to  Italy  and  Koumania. 
I  have  no  more  information  in  this  direction  than  is  ob- 
tainable from  newspaper  reports,  except  as  it  reaches  me 
in  private  letters.  An  extract  from  one  of  them  (from  a 
land-owner  in  the  north  of  Italy)  must  be  my  personal 
contribution  to  this  phase  of  the  subject: 

"Here  in  Italy  everyone  is  seized  with  horror  at  the  way 
the  Germans  carry  the  war  with  their  'Kultur.'  Their  great 
deeds  are  to  fire  on  poor  children  and  women  and  churches, 
and  to  rob  private  houses,  towns  and  villages.  And  yet  they 


472  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

pretend  to  impose  their  civilization  on  the  world!  I  hope  and 
believe  that  the  hour  will  soon  strike  when  they  will  be  com- 
pletely smashed,  and  1  also  hope  and  believe  Italy  will  join 
in  putting  an  end  to  their  behavior  and  their  brutality.  The 
best  class  of  the  population  in  Italy  is  in  favor  of  joining  the 
Allies  in  Italy's  own  interests  and  honor.  The  best  newspapers, 
as  the  Carrier e  delta  Sera,  Secole,  Tribune,  Stampa,  etc.,  are 
daily  publishing  articles  in  favor  of  intervention.  The  women, 
peasants,  socialists  (a  good  many)  and  the  clerical  party,  are 
against  the  war. 

"Italy  has  already  done  a  great  thing  in  not  following  the 
Austro- Germans  in  their  monstrous  plans.  They  thought  to 
make  Italy  obey  like  a  humble  servant  against  her  own 
interests,  but  they  have  made  a  mistake.  But  this  is  not 
enough.  Italy  will  have,  sooner  or  later,  to  join  the  Allies, 
if  she  does  not  want  to  feel  the  consequences  of  the  present 
state  of  affairs.  This  is  my  personal  opinion,  but  it  is  also 
the  general  opinion  of  the  best  and  most  intelligent  class  of 
people." 

But  the  opinion  on  this  matter  that  I  believe  to  be 
more  valuable  than  any  other  I  have  seen,  was  from  the 
pen  of  Felice  Ferrero,  worker  of  Guglielmo  Ferrero,  the 
historian,  and  long  connected  with  what  is  perhaps  the 
most  influential  Italian  newspaper,  the  Corriere  della  Sera 
of  Milan. 

He  says  (271)  in  reference  to  general  Italian  sentiment, 
that  Italy  has  a  quarrel  and  that  her  quarrel  is  with  Aus- 
tria, and  adds : 

"If  Germany  has  seen  fit  to  back  Austria  in  the  latter's 
attempt  to  sandbag  Servia,  Germany  must  inevitably  share  the 
ill  feeling  that  is  running  against  Austria,  and  eventually  take 
the  consequences  of  it.  Needless  to  say  that,  acting  toward 
Belgium  in  much  the  same  way  as  Austria  tried  to  deal  with 
Servia,  Germany  has  done  all  in  her  power  to  enhance  this 
ill  will,  and  subsequent  behavior  has  done  nothing  to  lessen  it. 

"I  recall,  for  instance,  a  statement  made  by  the  Reichskanzler, 
Bethmann-Hollweg,  to  the  Berlin  correspondent  of  an  impartial 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  473 

Rome  newspaper.  He  explained  how  at  first  Germany  had 
been  much  disappointed  over  Italy's  announcement  of  neutrality, 
but  had,  on  second  thought,  considered  it  a  highly  satisfactory 
procedure;  'because,'  he  said,  'if  Italy  had  joined  Germany,  she 
would  have  at  once  been  attacked  on  land  and  water  by  France 
and  England,  and  the  war  of  the  Triple  Alliance  would  have 
begun  under  the  bad  omen  of  defeat.'  How  is  that  for  a  com- 
pliment intended  to  win  the  favor  of  the  Italians?" 

Signer  Ferrero  discusses  the  Austria-Italian  incompati- 
bility and  the  reasons  therefor,  and  concludes: 

"That  Italian  opinion  is  as  unanimous  as  opinion  can  be  in  a 
people  of  thirty-five  millions  on  this  point:  war  in  company 
with  Austria,  and  consequently  Germany,  is  inconceivable.  On 
the  contrary,  opinion  is  divided  as  to  the  next  possible  move — 
whether  or  not  neutrality  should  be  maintained  to  the  end  of 
the  war." 

After  a  further  discussion  of  all  the  factors  involved, 
his  final  conclusion  is  as  follows : 

"According  to  our  view,  Italy  cannot,  for  two  reasons,  insist 
on  a  policy  of  neutrality.  First,  for  a  positive  reason:  a  suc- 
cessful Austria  would  be  the  undisputed  mistress  of  the  Bal- 
kans; would  make  an  end  of  Italian  opportunity  to  gain  the 
Italian  provinces  of  Austria;  would  create  a  disastrous  rivalry 
in  naval  armaments  for  the  control  of  the  Adriatic — not  to 
speak  of  the  possibility  that  Austria  might  entertain  plans  for 
revenge.  A  successful  Germany,  with  a  weakened  Austria, 
might  be  even  worse,  as  it  might  lead  to  the  establishment  of 
Germany  on  Adriatic  shores. 

"Second,  for  a  negative  reason:  no  European  Power  at  this 
time  is  strong  enough  to  stand  isolation  without  immense  risk, 
and  isolation  will,  in  any  event,  be  the  fate  of  Italy  if  she  does 
not  take  sides  at  all;  isolation  both  because  she  has  not  helped 
the  loser  to  win  and  because  she  has  not  helped  the  winner  to 
reach  a  speedier  victory. 


474  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"In  addition,  economic  reasons  now  favor  intervention.  With 
her  army  practically  on  a  war  footing,  it  is  costing  Italy  a  mil- 
lion and  a  half  dollars  a  day  to  keep  neutral.  Already  a  credit 
of  $200,000,000  has  been  passed  by  Parliament.  Such  a  burden, 
without  hope  of  some  political  return,  could  hardly  be  borne 
by  any  country  with  continued  equanimity. 

"We  understand,  and  on  good  authority,  that  Italy  has  been 
told  by  the  Entente  Allies  that  she  may  have  all  she  wants  on 
the  Adriatic — Trieste,  Istria,  Dalmatia,  Albania — and  even 
something  in  Asia  Minor,  provided  she  comes  out  and  takes  it. 
The  occupation  of  Albanian  ports,  which  preludes  the  occupa- 
tion of  Albania,  is  in  Italy  widely  interpreted  as  meaning  that 
Italy  has  'taken  the  hint.'  Certain  it  is  that  when  her  Gov- 
ernment decides  the  momentous  step,  it  will  find  her  people 
a  unit  behind  it,  if  not  indeed  ahead  of  it." 

As  I  have  ventured  into  this  field  at  all  and  have  in  it 
no  shade  of  fitness  for  the  role  of  prophet,  it  seems  de- 
sirable to  lay  before  American  readers  the  views  held, 
after  six  months  of  war,  by  the  American  writer  whose 
semi-technical  war  articles  have,  I  think,  made  the  great- 
est impression  upon  the  American  public.  Mr.  Frank 
H.  Simonds  says:  (272) 

"Six  months  after  the  outbreak  of  the  world  war  the  out- 
standing fact  was  that  peace  seemed  as  distant,  almost  more 
distant  than  it  did  in  September.  Yet  if  the  close  of  the  con- 
flict remained  still  a  subject  for  speculation,  it  was  now  plain 
that  the  issue  had  been  determined  in  September  and  that  all 
that  had  happened  since  the  Battle  of  the  Marne  had  in  fact 
been  the  natural  consequence  of  one  more  decisive  battle  of  the 
world.  On  fields  and  hills  but  little  distant  from  the  plain 
where  Roman  civilization  turned  back  Attila,  the  German  bid 
for  world  supremacy,  the  Kaiser's  chance  to  play  Napoleon 
were  abolished.  . 

"Six  months  after  war  had  begun  Germany  was  still  faced 
by  three  great  nations,  their  military  force  wholly  unshaken, 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  475 

their  armies  still  gaining  in  numbers,  their  deficiencies  in  artil- 
lery, in  machinery  all  but  made  good.  Such  advantage  as  her 
preparedness  had  given  her,  the  credit  balance  in  her  favor, 
was  now  exhausted. 

"In  the  same  period  her  Austrian  ally  had  three  times  been 
beaten  almost  to  her  knees  by  Russian  victories,  was  now  facing 
an  invasion  across  the  Carpathians  into  Hungary.  Twice,  too, 
the  Hapsburg  Emperor  had  seen  splendid  armies  ignominiously 
routed,  destroyed  by  the  hated  Serbs,  who  in  their  turn  were 
preparing  to  flow  over  the  Danube  into  Hungary. 

"Around  the  world  the  German,  hopes  had  equally  proven 
vain.  The  Turk  had  suffered  disaster,  the  Holy  War  had  fallen 
to  empty  nothing,  the  South  African  revolution  had  flickered  out 
as  an  abortive  revolt,  with  no  other  permanent  consequence 
than  to  insure  the  loss  of  German  Southwest  Africa.  In  Asia 
her  colony  had  disappeared  into  Japanese  hands,  in  the  Pacific 
her  islands  were  lost  irrevocably,  in  Africa  her  remaining  col- 
onies were  being  slowly  but  steadily  consumed  by  her  enemies 
as  one  eats  an  artichoke,  leaf  by  leaf." 

"Half  a  year  of  war  had  given  history  one  more  decisive 
battle,  for  Europe  conceivably  the  greatest  in  permanent  mean- 
ing since  Waterloo.  In  that  battle  it  had  been  decided  that 
Europe  should  still  be  European  and  not  Prussian.  At  the 
Marne,  France  had  saved  herself  and  Europe;  after  the  Marne 
the  problem  was  how  long  it  would  take  Europe  to  conquer 
Germany,  and  in  January  it  was  unmistakable  that  as  yet 
Europe  had  made  no  progress." 

****** 

"Since  a  war  of  attrition  seemed  inevitable,  the  natural 
inquiry  was  in  January:  How  long  will  it  take  to  reach 
exhaustion?  Again,  since  it  was  now  clear  that  Austrian 
resources  were  fast  failing  and  new  drafts  were  being  made 
upon  German  armies  to  defend  Hungary  as  well  as  Cracow, 
the  real  problem  became:  How  long  can  Germany  continue  to 
meet  France,  Russia  and  England  with  equal  or  sufficient  num- 
bers to  prolong  the  war? 

"Early  in  the  war  Lord  Kitchener  had  said  that  the  struggle 
might  last  three  years.  What  seemed  a  mere  rough  estimate 
becomes  far  more  significant  examined  by  the  few  statistics 
yet  available,  which  show  the  wastage  of  war. 


476  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"Thus  it  seems  fair  to  estimate  that  Germany  has  now  in  the 
field  3,000,000  men,  France  2,000,000,  Austria  1,000,000,  Russia 
3,000,000.  England  at  no  distant  date  will  have  1,000,- 
000  on  the  Continent.  Servia  and  Belgium  may  be  reckoned 
to  have  250,000. 

"Now  as  far  as  Russia  is  concerned  her  supply  of  men  is  for 
any  ordinary  calculation  inexhaustible.  That  she  can  keep  her 
European  force  at  3,000,000  for  three  years,  despite  battle 
losses  is  hardly  debatable.  As  to  England,  her  ability  to  main- 
tain an  army  of  1,000,000  on  the  Continent  indefinitely  and 
despite  losses  is  equally  to  be  accepted.  It  is  different  with 
France.  Her  available  military  population  may  be  reckoned  at 
4,000,000.  Of  this  she  has  already  lost  1,000,000  by  death, 
capture,  disease  or  wounds.  Half  of  this  number  may  be 
reckoned  as  permanently  lost.  At  this  rate,  France  will  be 
reduced  at  the  opening  of  the  third  year  of  war  to  2,000',000. 
With  her  allies  she  will  then  have  6,000,000  men.  But  her 
losses  in  this  year  cannot  be  made  good,  save  by  the  new  class 
coming  to  the  colors  in  1917  and  levies  from  her  colonies. 

"Now  Germany  may  be  reckoned  to  have  had  6,000,000  men 
available  for  service  in  July,  1914;  600,000  more  will  be  sup- 
plied by  the  combined  classes  of  1916  and  1917.  German  losses 
in  the  first  six  months  may  be  estimated  at  1,800,000.  At  this 
rate,  1,800,000  will  be  removed  permanently  from  the  German 
lines  in  each  of  the  first  two  years  of  war.  Thus  at  the  opening 
of  the  third,  Germany  will  still  have  3,000^,000  men  to  draw  on. 
But  her  losses  thereafter  will  be  definitive,  because  she  will 
have  exhausted  her  reserve.  As  to  Austria,  she  has  lost  more 
than  1,000,000  already  in  her  many  disasters.  She  may  still 
have  1,000,000  in  the  field,  but  a  year  hence,  two  years  hence, 
she  can  hope  for  no  more  and  her  resources,  too,  will  be  com- 
pletely exhausted. 

"Thus,  as  the  third  year  of  the  war  opens  not  more  than 
4,000,000  Austro-Germans,  the  last  line,  will  confront  6,000,- 
000  Russians,  British,  and  French,  helped  by  some  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  Slavs  and  Belgians,  behind  whom  will  stand 
Russian  and  British  reserves  of  at  least  4,000,000.  This  means, 
with  every  discount  for  the  roughness  of  the  estimate,  that 
sometime  in  the  third  year,  while  Russia  and  Britain  are  still 
able  to  keep  their  armies-  at  their  present  point,  Austro-German 
forces  will  begin  to  decline  rapidly  and  a  tremendous  advantage 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  477 

of  numbers  will  belong  to  the  enemies  of  Germany.  Such  is 
the  statement  of  what  may  be  called  the  mathematics  of  mur- 
der. 

"For  Americans  it  will  be  interesting  to  recall  that  this  is 
precisely  what  happened  to  the  South  in  the  third  year  of  the 
Civil  War.  Up  to  this  time  the  South  had  been  able  to  meet 
invasion  and  halt  it  with  numbers  unequal  to  their  opponents 
but  equal  to  their  task.  But  in  1864  the  'seedcorn  of  the  Con- 
federacy/ as  Jefferson  Davis  termed  the  young  men,  had  been 
ground  up  and  the  end  came  quickly  thereafter.  .  .  ." 

"Once  more,  as  in  December,  the  month  [January]  closed 
with  a  German  raid  upon  England,  this  time  by  air,  not  water. 
With  the  King's  residence  at  Sandringham  as  an  objective,  half 
a  dozen  German  aircraft, — not  Zeppelins,  so  later  reports  had  it, 
— flew  over  Norfolk  sowing  bombs  and  spreading  destruction. 

"But  again,  as  in  the  Scarborough  raid,  civilians,  not  soldiers, 
suffered, — private,  not  public,  property  was  destroyed.  A 
wanton  burst  of  savagery  provoked  wrath,  not  terror, — left 
England  not  fearful,  but  determined." 

As  a  further  aid  to  an  intelligent  opinion,  if  not  to  a 
decision,  as  to  the  whole  question,  I  may  append  an  inter- 
esting review  in  a  recent  American  weekly  (273)  which 
says  truthfully  that  it  is  a  matter  which  touches  the  wel- 
fare of  everybody  in  America,  capitalist  or  laborer,  farmer 
or  manufacturer,  employer  or  employee.  It  discusses  the 
probable  entrance  of  Italy  and  Eoumania  into  the  war, 
and  the  possibility  of  the  starvation  of  Germany,  quoting 
the  denials  of  General  von  F'alkenhayn  and  Professor  Otto 
Appel,  but  quoting  also  the  address  to  the  German  nation 
by  Dr.  Harms,  Professor  of  State  Sciences,  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Kiel : 

"Do  not  let  a  crumb  of  bread,  this  gift  of  God,  be  wasted. 
Eat  only  war  bread — regard  the  potato  as  a  vegetable  which  will 
assist  you  in  holding  out.  Blush  with  shame  if  your  desire  for 
delicacies  tempts  you  to  eat  cakes  and  tarts.  Look  with  con- 


478  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

tempt  upon  those  who  are  so  immoral  as  to  eat  cakes  and, 
by  their  greed,  dimmish  our  supplies  of  flour." 

"Asked  how  long  the  war  would  last,  Lord  Kitchener,  accord- 
ing to  a  London  dispatch,  replied:  'I  don't  know  when  it  will 
end,  but  I  do  know  when  it  will  begin,  and  that  is  in  the  month 
of  May.'  Commenting  on  this,  the  Brooklyn  Times  says: 

"It  is  the  most  momentous  and,  indeed,  the  most  appalling 
announcement  of  the  year.  It  means  that  the  next  four  months 
will  be  utilized  in  assembling  the  strongest  forces,  bringing 
forward  the  heaviest  guns,  urging  the  entrance  of  already  well- 
disposed  Allies  into  the  conflict,  and  such  a  reign  of  terror, 
destruction,  and  death  in  Europe  next  summer,  that  even  the 
events  just  passed  will  form  but  a  prelude." 

"From  French  sources  also  comes  evidence  that  a  long  war 
is  expected.  In  an  official  resume  of  the  fighting  from  November 
15  to  January  15,  issued  by  the  French  War  Office,  we  read: 

"Summing  up,  we  get  ten  general  advances  on  the  part  of 
our  troops  which  were  distinctly  perceptible  at  certain  places, 
as  compared  to  twenty  general  withdrawals  on  the  part  of  the 
enemy — always  with  the  exception  of  the  situation  in  the  north- 
east of  Soissons.  .  .  . 

"It  can  consequently  be  affirmed  that,  to  obtain  final  victory, 
it  is  sufficient  that  France  and  her  allies  know  how  to  wait 
for  it  and  at  the  same  time  prepare  for  it  with  inexhaustible 
patience. 

"The  German  offensive  has  been  broken;  the  German  defen- 
sive will  be  broken  in  its  turn." 

"After  weighing  all  available  evidence,  Mr.  Frank  H. 
Simonds  (see  p.  474),  editor  of  the  New  York  Evening  Sun, 
remarks  that  'the  three  years  originally  fixed  as  the  maximum 
duration  of  the  war  now  seems  rather  the  minimum  period  in 
which  the  end  can  be  reached.'  Peace,  he  points  out,  is  pos- 
sible on  one  of  two  bases :  '  ( 1 )  If  one  side  is  sufficiently  success- 
ful to  impose  its  terms  on  its  opponents;  (2)  if  all  parties  are 
so  exhausted  that  peace  on  the  conditions  existing  at  the  outset 
seems  preferable  to  prolongation  of  the  sacrifices  of  war.'  Dis- 
missing at  once  the  idea  of  a  decisive  victory  for  either  side 
in  the  near  future,  he  goes  on  to  say : 

"There  remains  the  question  of  the  value  of  peace  to  the 
contestants.  For  the  enemies  of  Germany  does  a  return  to  the 
conditions  of  July,  1914,  assuming  Germany  wpuld  agree  to  it, 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  479 

hold  out  any  attraction  comparable  with  the  profit  of  prolong- 
ing the  war  to  the  successful  end,  which  it  now  seems  inevitable 
they  can  reach,  if  they  will  pay  the  price  in  blood  and  treas- 
ure?" 

"The  answer,  he  finds,  in  an  unmistakable  negative.  In  the 
case  of  Russia,  *all  that  Russian  statesmen  and  rulers  since 
Peter  have  dreamed  of  seems  now  to  be  had  for  the  fighting,' 
so  that  'peace  on  the  old  footing  can  have  no  appeal  to  Petro- 
grad/  As  for  England — 

"peace  now  means  a  new  rivalry  with  Germany,  who  day  after 
day  proclaims  Britain  her  only  foe.  It  means  that  German 
supremacy  in  Islam  will  be  perpetuated,  unrest  in  Egypt,  sedi- 
tion in  India  further  promoted  from  Stamboul.  It  means  that 
new  intrigues  in  South  Africa  must  follow  the  return  of  Ger- 
many to  her  Southwest- African  Colony." 

"As  for  France,  'for  forty-three  years  the  German  shadow 
has  been  over  her,  and  peace  now  would  not  lift  it.'  Austria, 
as  Mr.  Simonds  sees  it,  is  the  only  combatant  who  would  prob- 
ably be  glad  at  this  moment  to  make  peace,  if  possible,  on  the 
basis  of  1914.  Turning  to  Germany,  he  says: 

"Doubtless  she  could  make  peace  now  if  «she  would  leave 
Austria  and  Turkey  to  their  fates,  surrender  Alsace-Lorraine, 
scrap  her  fleet,  give  up  Belgium,  pay  the  cost  of  the  war,  and 
abandon  her  colonies.  But  such  terms  could  only  be  paid  in 
case  of  complete  defeat,  after  the  power  to  resist  had  been 
exhausted,  and  Germany  is  very  far  from  this.  Yet  it  is  incon- 
ceivable that  her  foes  would  now  give  materially  better  terms." 

"And  he  concludes: 

"Americans  will  do  well  in  considering  the  European  situa- 
tion to  bear  in  mind  that  in  no  country  now  fighting  is  there 
sufficient  desire  for  peace  to  make  tolerable  the  only  conditions 
under  which  peace  is  possible.  This  and  the  fact  that  from  the 
military  standpoint  there  is  no  longer  the  possibility  of  an 
immediately  decisive  campaign  combine  to  abolish  any  real 
hope  of  peace  in  any  future  that  it  is  now  possible  to  meas- 
ure. .  .,  ;., 

"Early  in  the  war  Lord  Kitchener  fixed  three  years  as  the 
limit  of  the  conflict.  To-day  the  best  witnesses  in  Europe  agree 
that  it  will  be  longer  rather  than  shorter.  Nowhere  save  in 


480  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

America  is  there  the  smallest  hope  of  an  early  termination. 
Nowhere  save  in  this  country  is  there  any  considerable  desire 
for  peace  on  any  terms  which  are  possible  in  the  premises." 
(See  p.  336.) 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 
What  Can  America  Do  to  Bring  About  Peace? 

This  question  was  submitted  to  a  meeting  of  the  Con- 
temporary Club  of  Philadelphia,  an  organization  devoted 
to  the  discussion  of  literary,  ethical,  social  and  political 
matters.  The  meeting  was  addressed  by  the  Hon.  James 
M.  Beck,  but  I  have  unfortunately  no  copy  of  his  extem- 
pore but  very  eloquent  speech.  Allusion  to  it  will  be 
found  on  p.  371. 

It  was  also  addressed  by  Dr.  Stanton  Coit,  president  of 
the  Ethical  Society  of  London.  I  am  similarly  without 
a  transcript  of  his  remarks,  but  I  regret  this  the  less,  as 
Dr.  Coit,  in  so  far  as  he  was  understandable,  left  the  im- 
pression on  my  mind,  so  far  as  he  left  any  impression,  that 
he  was  a  sort  of  attenuated  Bernard  Shaw,  and  scarcely  to 
be  trusted  to  present  a  fair  view  of  the  British  case  to 
American  audiences. 

But  perhaps  it  was  my  stupidity  that  left  me  when  Dr. 
Coit  had  finished,  in  the  mental  condition  of  Alice  who, 
when  she  was  in  doubt  whether  mustard  was  a  vegetable 
or  a  mineral,  received  the  following  helpful  explanation 
from  the  Duchess:  "Never  imagine  yourself  not  to  be 
otherwise  than  what  it  might  appear  to  others  that  what 
you  were  or  might  have  been  was  not  otherwise  than  what 
you  had  been  would,  have  appeared  to  them  to  be  other- 
wise." 

My  own  contribution  to  the  proceedings  was,  in  part, 
as  follows: 

31  (481) 


482  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

The  answer  to  the  question  of  the  evening  seems  to  me 
to  depend  essentially  upon  the  answers  to  several  other 
questions  which  should  first  be  asked.  These  are : 

1.  Is  an  inconclusive  peace  desirable?  Is  any  peace 
desirable  which  leaves  Europe  an  armed  camp,  and  which 
involves  and  practically  insures  a  continuance  of  the  fran- 
tic struggle  for  superior  military,  naval,  and  aerial  arma- 
ments? Is  any  peace  desirable  which  does  not  definitely 
end  the  power  of  a  neurotic,  possibly  half -crazed  individ- 
ual, backed  by  a  number  of  feudal  barons,  and  by  a  larger 
number  of  reactionary,  State-fed,  State-paid,  and  State- 
owned  professors,  philosophers  and  theologians,  and  by  a 
deluded  people,  to  prepare  for,  bring  about,  and  precipi- 
tate upon  the  world  an  immeasurable  calamity? 

I  would  assume  that  by  the  vast  majority  of  Americans 
those  questions  would  be  answered  in  the  negative. 

They,  of  course,  implicitly  contain  premises  violently 
disputed  and  denied  by  the  pro-Germans,  but  as  they  are, 
in  the  main,  accepted  by  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world — 
or  perhaps  I  should  merely  say  by  the  civilized  world — 
they  need  not  be  argued,  even  if  there  were  time  to  do  so. 
Nor  does  it  seem  worth  while  to  argue  with  the  out-and- 
out  pacificists,  the  "immediate  peace"  advocates,  the  peace- 
at-any-price  people.  They  can,  I  admit,  at  least  advance, 
in  support  of  their  position,  theories  that  appeal  to  many 
minds — or  rather  to  many  temperaments — and  that  bring 
to  the  vision  of  the  imaginative  an  El  Dorado  of  world- 
virtue  and  world-happiness.  May  it  some  time  come  to 
pass !  There  is  no  harm  in  wishing  for  the  abolition  of 
disease  and  sin  and  suffering.  But  if  Boards  of  Health 
and  'Courts  of  Law  assumed,  as  a  basis  for  action,  the 
early  realization  of  the  wish,  the  alienists  would  take 
charge  of  the  Health  Officers  and  the  Recall  of  the  Ju- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  483 

diciary  would  be  the  most  popular  plank  in  all  the  na- 
tional platforms. 

2.  The  next  question  is,  obviously:  What  sort  of  peace 
is  desirable? 

The  answer  to  this,  by  Americans,  involves  a  considera- 
tion of  the  principles  and  ideals  of  the  powers  by  and 
between  whom  peace  is  to  be  made. 

For  this  purpose  it  is  not  necessary  to  make  fine-spun 
distinctions  as  to  the  different  governments  concerned,  or 
to  ask  separately  as  to  the  standards  of  England,  France, 
Eussia,  Belgium,  and  Japan,  on  the  one  hand,  or  as  to 
those  «of  Germany,  Austria,  and  Turkey,  on  the  other. 

The  side  which  indicted,  tried  and  condemned  a  whole 
nation  within  forty-eight  hours,  without  public  examina- 
tion of  witnesses  and  without  published  evidence,  for  a 
crime — however  abhorrent — committed  by  individuals; 
the  side  which,  having  completed  its  preparation  for  war, 
used  this  illegal  indictment  and  this  unwarranted  convic- 
tion, as  a  pretext  for  the  disturbance  of  the  peace  and 
prosperity  of  the  world ;  the  side  that  has  for  its  leader  a 
"Divinely  appointed"  colossal  egotist — (and  of  all  the 
mistakes  of  which  Divine  Providence  has  been  accused  by 
mortals,  this  seems  the  most  stupendous) ;  the  side  which 
regards  war  as  a  "biological  necessity,"  which  glorifies 
Might  as  superior  to  Right,  which  first  flouts  and  disre- 
gards treaties  and  conventions  and  then  tries  falsely  to 
explain  them  away ;  the  side  which,  in  spite  of — or  largely 
because  of — the  tragic  befoolment  of  millions  of  plain, 
worthy,  simple-minded  people,  represents  essentially  a 
mediaeval,  war-like  aristocracy — that  side  can  never  hope 
to  have  the  sympathy,  support,  or  co-operation  of  the 
American  people.  A  peace  that  would  establish  as  the 
practical  ruler  of  the  world  a  Power  whose  avowed  intent 
is  to  be  such  ruler,  and  to  force  upon  its  fellow-nations  its 


484  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

own  perverted  standards  of  "Kultur,"  of  civilization,  of 
national  and  international  morals,,  ought  to  be  and,  I  be- 
lieve, would  be  intolerable  to  this  country. 

Therefore,  the  only  sort  of  peace  which  should  seem 
desirable  to  America  is  a  peace  which  shall  ensure  the 
dominance  and  continued  spread  of  the  ideals  for  which 
the  Allies  are  fighting.  Those  ideals  represent  an  honest 
regard  for  the  rights  of  others,  including  the  smaller  and 
relatively  defenseless  nations ;  a  subordination  of  the  State 
to  its  citizens  instead  of  the  erection  of  a  Baal  or  Moloch 
to  whom  all  must  bow,  and  with  whose  purposes,  even  if 
bloody  and  tyrannical,  all  must  acquiesce.  They  include 
a  conception  of  adequate  and  powerful  armies  and  navies, 
not  as  weapons  of  aggression  and  destruction,  but  as  the 
constabulary  of  the  world,  to  stand  back  of  and  protect 
the  genuine  fundamental  rights  of  nations  and  to  enforce 
international  decrees.  These  ideals  represent,  in  a  word, 
true  as  compared  with  spurious  Democracy,  the  best  aver- 
age good  of  mankind  as  compared  with  the  aggrandize- 
ment and  perpetuation  of  dynasties,  they  represent  the 
principles  of  Washington,  of  Lincoln,  and,  of  Roosevelt, 
instead  of  those  of  a  preposterous  "War  Lord"  with  three 
hundred  uniforms  and,  to  put  it  mildly,  a  bad  case  of 
megalocephalus. 

It  would  not  in  the  least  matter  if  Russia  were  ten 
times  the  despotism  it  is,  if  England  were  monarchical 
in  reality,  instead  of  from  habit,  sentiment  and  conveni- 
ence; if  France  were  not  a  Republic;  if  Belgium  were 
governed  by  a  Sultan  instead  of  by  a  Hero. 

The  principles  at  stake  are  plain  to  all  eyes  not  blinded 
by  partisanship,  or  self-interest,  or  false  ideas  of  loyalty 
to  a  strain  of  blood,  or  to  a  fictitious  "Fatherland."  The 
sort  of  peace  which  places  those  principles  on  a  firm  foun- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  485 

dation  is  the  only  sort  that  America  ought  to  desire,  and 
that,  I  think,  she  does  desire. 

3.  If  I  am  right,  thus  far,  the  question  as  to  what  Amer- 
ica can  do  to  bring  about  that  Tcind  of  peace  almost  answers 
itself.  In  a  word,  it  is :  Help  the  Allies. 

I  am  quite  aware  that  such  a  reply  at  once  antagonizes 
a  great  many  Americans.  It  might  mean  war,  and  there 
are  those  who  think  all  war  wicked,  who  place  their  de- 
pendence upon  ^preparedness,  and  who,  in  case  of  insult 
or  aggression,  would  turn  the  other  cheek;  who  do  not 
discriminate  between  wars  of  conquest  and  oppression  and 
wars  in  defense  of  everything  that  differentiates  the  civ- 
ilization of  the  Twentieth  Century  from  that  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages.  They  are  represented — -at  least  on  the  Cha- 
tauqua  circuit — by  our  Secretary  of  State.  With  them, 
as  I  have  before  said,  I  cannot  argue.  They  must  be  left 
to  their  slumbers  with  the  hope  that  the  awakening  may 
be  blessed  and  joyful  and  not  the  reverse. 

There  are  others,  who,  with  Mr.  Champ  Clark,  say 
that  we  must  keep  out  because  we  do  not  want  to  get 
hurt.  But  even  admitting  this  as  a  practical,  though  some- 
what ignoble,  reason  for  neutrality,  it  at  once  raises  the 
further  question:  Shall  we,  by  keeping  out,  avoid  get- 
ting hurt?  We  are  hurt  already;  hurt  in  our  pockets 
to-day,  and  in  our  inability  to  plan  or  to  provide  for  the 
future;  hurt  in  the  burden  that  has  been  thrown  upon 
us, — and  that,  I  am  glad  to  say,  has  been  willingly  as- 
sumed— of  aiding  the  sick  and  wounded,  the  homeless 
and  starving  of  the  war;  hurt  in  our  pride  by  reason  of 
the  evident  belief  on  the  part  of  the  German  apologists, 
that  we  are  so  unintelligent  as  to  be  swayed  by  their  dis- 
ingenuous sophisms  and  their  clumsy  falsehoods;  hurt  by 
the  unexpected  defection  of  large  numbers  of  worthy  fel- 
low-citizens, whom  we  had  thought  to  be  good  Americans, 


486  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

but  who  in  the  stress  and  excitement  of  war,  and  under 
the  guidance  and  inspiration  of  an  unscrupulous  German 
propaganda,  have  reverted  to  the  un-American  ideals  and 
purposes  of  their  so-called  Fatherland ;  hurt  profoundly  by 
the  brutal  pillage  and  destruction  of  a  fellow-neutral, 
whose  inalienable  rights 'have  been  contemptuously  tram- 
pled upon — rights  that  were  not  acquired  by  treaty  or 
agreement,  that  do  not  depend  upon  conventions  and  pour- 
parlers and  signatories,  but  that  date  back  to  the  dawn 
of  civilization  when  the  morals  of  the  cave  man  were  super- 
seded by  those  of  the  family  and  of  the  tribe. 

Finally,  we  are  prospectively  hurt  in  that  there  are 
many  and  convincing  indications  that  a  peace  concluded 
with  Germany  victorious,  would  mean  for  us  either  an 
inglorious  and  humiliating  abandonment  of  cherished  doc- 
trines and  ideals,  or  an  era  of  militarism,  and,  finally,  of 
war,  on  a  scale  even  more  gigantic  than  that  of  the  present. 

The  admonitions  of  the  President  as  to  neutrality,  even 
in  thought  and  speech, — which,  if  followed,  would  have 
seemed  to  demonstrate  that  we  were  a  nation  of  tongue- 
tied  imbeciles — have  already  been  rather  widely  disre- 
garded. I  am  glad  it  is  so,  because,  in  times  like  these, 
with  all  that  we  politically  hold  dear,  with  the  very  cause 
of  Freedom  itself,  trembling  in  the  balance,  it  would  seem 
cowardly  not  at  least  to  say,  what  millions  of  us  think. 

But  if  we  really  want  the  sort  of  peace  I  have  outlined ; 
if  we  want  this  war  to  end  with  a  French  France,  an  Eng- 
lish England,  and,  most  of  all  and  with  our  whole  hearts, 
a  Belgian  Belgium,  instead  of  with  a  Prussianized  Europe, 
which  would,  as  soon  as  it  had  licked  its  paws,  turn  its 
wolfs  eyes  toward  this  continent;  we  ought  not  only  to 
say  something,  but  also  to  do  something. 

4.  And  here  comes  the  final  question:  What  can  we  do? 

In  the  first  place,  to  recur  to  Mr.  Champ  Clark  and  his 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  487 

dread  of  "getting  hurt/'  we  have  nothing  to  fear  in  that 
direction,  unless  indeed  it  might  be  for  a  very  short  time, 
from  the  extremists  and  fanatics  among  the  German-Amer- 
icans here,  who  are  being  called  upon  to  "organize."  I 
suppose  that  scarcely  means  "mobilize,"  but  if  it  did  it 
would  not  be  extremely  alarming. 

As  to  Germany,  she  could  do  nothing  to  us  without  her 
navy,  and  that  she  could  succeed  in  controlling  the  seas 
in  opposition  to  the  English,  French,  Eussian  and  Amer- 
ican navies,  is  unthinkable. 

We  could,  of  course,  not  accomplish  as  much  by  inter- 
vention as  if  we  were,  as  we  should  be,  in  a  reasonable 
condition  of  naval  and  military  preparedness.  But  our 
participation  would  have  the  immediate  result  of  bringing 
about  that  condition  without  dangerous  delay. 

We  could  at  least  shut  off  largely  the  food  supply  to 
the  German  armies,  and  it  would  not  be  inhumane  if,  for 
a  time,  we  could  aid  in  making  the  pinch  felt  by  the  Ger- 
man people.  It  might  tend  to  hasten  the  awakening,  the 
loss  of  confidence  in  their  leaders,  the  distrust  of  the  pur- 
poses and  meaning  of  the  war  which  will  surely  come 
some  time  to  such  a  people,  no  matter  how  greatly  their 
natural  common-sense  and  clearness  of  vision  have  been 
obscured  by  the  false  ideals  and  issues  that  have  been  so 
industriously  presented  to  them. 

We  could  at  the  same  time  greatly  aid  in  feeding  and 
arming  and  coaling  the  Allies,  and  for  this  purpose,  the 
German  ships  lying  in  our  harbors  would  be  found  useful. 
We  could  be  of  great  use  in  patrolling  the  seas  and  in 
rendering  fruitless  the  piratical  threat  of  Germany  em- 
bodied in  its  establishment  of  a  "War  Zone." 

We  could  aid  in  keeping  open  the  communications 
between  New  York  and  the  ports  of  such  countries  as  might 
still  remain  neutral,  and  between  Prance  and  England. 


488  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

We  could  set  an  example  to  the  nations  everywhere  whose 
present  interests  and  future  development  are  imperiled 
by  the  war.  (See  p.  370.) 

All  this  seems  to  me  possible,  but  only  by  now  acquir- 
ing the  right  to  be  a  leader,  and  not  just  by  "watchful 
waiting/5  in  the  hope  of  stepping  into  such  a  position 
because  of  the  geographical  fact  that  we  are  three  thou- 
sand miles  away  from  the  scene  of  warfare ;  or  because  of 
some  mythical,  world-wide  confidence  in  the  exceptional 
wisdom  and  ability  of  whatever  American  Administration 
may  then  be  in  power. 

We  have  a  number  of  technical  justifications  for  inter- 
ference, but,  after  all,  when  I  think  over  the  matter,  I 
always  come  back  to  Belgium.  It  seems  to  me  that  the 
men  who  could  not  bear  to  see  a  little  child  inhumanly 
punished,  or  a  pet  dog  brutally  kicked,  or  a  willing  horse 
cruelly  flogged,  must,  at  least,  want  to  interfere. 

I  admit  that  in  the  cases  I  have  used  as  similes,  the 
actual  conduct  of  the  individual  onlooker  might  turn  upon 
his  preparedness  in  size,  or  strength,  or  skill,  to  cope  with 
a  bully  who  was  his  superior  in  those  respects.  But  the 
most  timorous  would  invoke  the  help  of  officers  of  the 
law,  or,  in  their  absence,  would  be  glad  to  join  with  sym- 
pathizing friends  in  administering  the  punishment,  which 
the  law  would  later  surely  uphold  and  approve. 

These  remain  my  views  to-day.  In  the  rapidly  unfold- 
ing panorama  of  the  war  nothing  has  appeared  to  change 
them. 

On  the  contrary,  my  regret  at  our  lost  opportunities 
and  my  resentment  at  the  failure  of  our  National  Admin- 
istration to  look  beyond  the  commercial  aspects  of  the  war 
have  become  deeper  and  stronger. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  489 

But,  as  I  have  tried  to  do  throughout,  I  beg  to  quote 
another  more  forceful  and  more  important  expression  of 
American  opinion :  (274) 

"General  February,  that  grimmest  of  strategists,  is  now  in 
full  command  of  the  European  battle  fronts.  The  imagination, 
already  burdened  by  the  horrors  of  war  by  land  and  sea,  by 
corpse-strewn  fields  and  blood- soaked  trenches,  must  picture  the 
sordid  miseries  of  a  winter  campaign — the  pitiless  exposure,  the 
keener  sufferings  of  the  wounded,  the  unspeakable  wretchedness 
of  the  millions  of  non-combatants  who  are  prisoners  of  despair 
in  the  zones  of  conflict. 

"No  one  with  a  spark  of  humanity  in  his  heart  can  contem- 
plate the  struggle  without  bitter  sorrow  and  a  passionate  desire 
that  it  could  be  halted.  If  you  had  the  power — you  who  read 
this — would  you  stop  the  war  to-day?  We  think  you  would. 
We  think  we  should  ourselves. 

"This  war  has  brought  untold  misery  to  millions,  and  priva- 
tion even  to  tens  of  thousands  of  our  countrymen.  The  world 
is  sick  with  the  calculated  horror  of  it  all.  As  men  visualize 
the  dreadful  details  of  the  picture — the  screaming  shells,  the 
mangled  bodies,  the  splitting  asunder  of  laden  ships,  the  rain 
of  explosives  from  the  clouds,  the  gaunt  skeletons  of  ruined 
cities,  the  tears  of  women,  the  faces  of  children  pinched  with 
want  and  fear —  their  very  souls  must  cry  out  for  an  end  to  it. 

"And  yet — what  then?  Let  us  look  a  little  at  this  vision 
of  peace. 

"The  war,  let  us  say,  is  to  be  stopped  to-night.  A  silence 
falls  along  the  vast  battle  line.  League  after  league,  in  the 
trampled,  blood-stained  snow,  the  weary  troops  rest  on  their 
arms. 

"The  huge  fleets  disperse ;  the  submarines  glide  away  through 
the  waters,  to  hunt  their  prey  no  more;  the  winged  warcraft 
circle  to  the  earth  and  are  at  rest;  the  great  siege  guns  still 
lift  their  muzzles  to  the  sky,  but  the  black  lips  are  cold  and 
dumb.  And  the  glad  message  of  peace  rings  like  an  anthem 
round  the  globe. 

"This  is  the  end  of  the  fighting.  But  what  is  it  that  we 
have  done? 

"Belgium  lies  prostrate  and  bleeding  under  the  heel  of  the 


490  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

invader.  Her  people,  robbed  of  their  nationality,  their  liberty 
and  their  homes,  are  suffering  cold  and  hunger  and  the  cruel 
bitterness  of  aggression.  A  wide  territory  in  France  has  been 
laid  waste,  its  cities  are  leveled,  its  fields  and  vineyards  strip- 
ped, its  inhabitants  scattered  abroad  or  held  as  helpless  hos- 
tages. Poland  and  East  Prussia  are  overrun  by  foreign  troops. 

"If  you  decree  an  end  of  the  war  to-night,  is  Belgium  to  be 
sacrificed?  Is  all  her  devotion  to  be  in  vain?  For  the  sake 
of  a  convenient  peace,  is  her  heroic  sacrifice  to  win  for  her  only 
the  crushing  burden  of  legalized  conquest  and  enforced  slavery 
to  a  triumphant  imperialism?  Is  France  to  have  another 
Alsace-Lorraine  torn  from  her  side?  Is  Holland  to  be  laid 
under  the  menacing  shadow  of  absorption  by  the  victorious 
empire? 

"But,  you  say,  one  would  not  suggest  stopping  the  war  upon 
any  such  outrageous  terms.  Possessing  the  power,  one  would 
impose,  of  course,  conditions  of  a  just  and  honorable  peace. 

"It  would  be  necessary  that  Belgium  be  restored  to  her  people, 
and  that  they  be  indemnified  so  far  as  money  could  restore  the 
hideous  ravages  of  war.  France  must  be  freed  of  the  invader 
and  her  material  losses  repaid.  Justice  must  be  done  to  Alsace- 
Lorraine  and  to  Poland.  There  must  be  no  looting  of  territory, 
whether  in  East  Prussia  or  Austria-Hungary  or  the  Balkan 
States. 

"Let  us  imagine,  then,  that  you  could  impose  such  a  peace 
to-day — it  is  really  inconceivable  while  Germany  has  her  armies, 
but  let  us  concede  that  it  were  miraculously  possible — would 
you  do  it  ?  If  you  did,  you  would  perform  the  greatest  imagin- 
able disservice  to  Europe,  to  the  cause  of  peace  and  humanity. 

"A  million  men  have  died,  whole  provinces  have  been  visited 
with  destruction,  nearly  twenty  billions  of  wealth  have  been 
consumed,  the  normal  activities  of  the  whole  world  have  been 
checked  and  disrupted  and  must  remain  in  uncertainty  for 
many  months  to  come.  And  all  these  terrific  losses,  when  once 
it  was  discerned  that  they  were  inevitable,  have  been  endured 
as  a  price  to  be  paid.  Now,  it  is  to  be  imagined,  at  a  wave  of 
your  wand,  you  halt  the  slaughter  and  devastation  and — except 
for  the  ruined  lands,  the  towering  debts  and  the  unnumbered 
graves — conditions  are  restored  as  they  were  last  July. 

"Not  a  single  question  has  been  settled,  not  a  single  principle 
established  or  vindicated.  Austria's  demand  upon  Servia 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  491 

remains  unsatisfied.  Balkan  ambitions  of  nationality  are 
denied;  Balkan  intrigue  still  invites  conflict.  Franco-German 
distrust  has  not  been  quenched,  but  inflamed.  British  domina- 
tion of  the  seas  has  been  in  nowise  reduced.  Germany's  fanat- 
ical faith  in  her  world-shadowing  destiny  still  fires  her  exul- 
tant soul. 

"Nevertheless,  you  urge,  militarism  has  been  checked  in  its 
designs;  the  conscience  of  the  world  has  ©aid,  'Thus  far  and 
no  farther!' 

"True,  militarism  has  been  checked,  but  for  how  long?  Our 
decree  of  peace  leaves  it  still  dominant  in  Germany,  more 
worshipped  than  ever  for  having  withstood  a  world  in  arms. 
Autocracy  is  still  higher  exalted,  the  religion  of  valor  still 
rules  and  perverts  the  faculties  of  a  great  people — the  most 
determined  and  the  most  efficient  on  earth. 

"And  elsewhere,  how  much  tranquility?  Are  we  to  imagine 
the  hosts  of  Russia,  aflame  with  patriotic  and  religious  ardor, 
peacefully  retiring  to  contemplate  the  graves  of  their  dead  and 
the  barred  gates  that  shut  her  from  the  sea?  Do  you  conceive 
the  blessings  of  unthreatened  security  enwrapping  Belgium, 
whose  wounds  a  generation  of  peace  will  not  stanch? 

"And  do  you  envy  France,  war  worn  and  impoverished  of  her 
best  blood,  starting  once  more  up  the  weary  hill  she  climbed 
from  1870  to  1914,  staggering  under  a  colossal  burden  of  debt, 
stung  by  the  memory  of  futile  sacrifice,  ever  conscious  of  the 
dark  shadow  of  militarism  across  her  stony  path?  Or  England, 
facing  for  unknown  years  the  menace  of  another  visitation  such 
as  for  the  first  time  in  her  history  has  struck  real  terror  to 
her  isoul  ? 

"Peace!  But  where?  Peace  on  scraps  of  paper,  peace  in 
the  masked  faces  of  intriguing  statesmen,  peace  in  the  hollow 
formalities  of  diplomatic  ceremony.  But  in  the  hearts  of  men, 
in  the  souls  of  nations,  bitterness,  hostility,  jealousies,  fear, 
hatred  and  the  potentiality  of  unending  conflict. 

"For,  mark  this :  You  stop  the  war  to-day,  and  you  stop  it 
when  every  nation  involved  is  perfectly  assured  that  it  is  on 
the  march  to  victory.  Austria  has  been  beaten,  but  not  con- 
quered. The  Russians  boast  that  they  have  just  begun  to  fight. 
'France  has  proved  her  valor  against  an  ancient  foe,  and  her 
soil  will  be  rich  for  years  with  the  blood  of  invaders. 

"The  British  have  shown  such  intrepidity  and  tenacity  as  the 


492  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

legions  of  Marlborough  and  Wellington,  the  sailors  of  Drake 
and  Nelson,  never  exceeded.  The  Germans  to-day  are  as  con- 
fident of  triumph  as  when  their  hosts  were  thundering  toward 
the  gates  of  Paris.  Stop  the  war  now  and  you  stop  it  with  all 
the  peoples  exalted  with  the  belief  that  they  are  invincible  and 
need  only  another  opportunity  to  prove  it. 

"This  and  the  leaving  of  the  causes  of  the  war  untouched 
could  have  but  one  effect.  The  struggle  for  supremacy  in  arma- 
ments would  begin  anew,  and  would  be  prosecuted  with  feverish 
energy.  Arsenals,  shipyards  and  arms  factories  would  work 
overtime,  and  every  nation  would  prepare  for  the  inevitable 
resumption  of  hostilities. 

"When  we  in  this  country  yearn  for  an  instant  peace  we  are 
thinking  only  of  the  frightful  losses,  the  sufferings  of  soldiers 
and  the  crushing  misery  of  the  non-combatants;  we  lose  sight 
of  the  fundamental  factors  in  the  conflict. 

"What  is  the  real  issue  at  stake?  We  readily  recognize  a 
conflict  of  races,  rivalry  of  empires,  territorial  ambitions,  a 
struggle  for  economic  ascendency.  But  at  bottom  this  is  a  war 
against  war,  against  a  great  delusion. 

"Half  the  world  has  been  plunged  into  strife  because  of  its 
frantic  efforts  to  avoid  it,  and  must  continue  until  the  mon- 
strous cult  has  been  buried  under  mounds  of  bodies  that  will 
be  an  everlasting  memorial  and  warning  of  human  madness. 
If  this  terrible  sacrifice  does  not  finally  destroy  war  from  the 
earth,  then  humanity  is  entering  the  darkest  period  of  its  his- 
tory and  civilization  is  revealed  as  a  hideous  failure. 

"Let  those  who  talk  of  interrupting  the  war  at  this  point 
consider  the  spirit  that  drives  the  contesting  nations  and  meas- 
ure the  possibilities  of  creating  thereby  an  enduring  peace. 

"To  learn  the  mind  of  Germany  we  need  not  quote  the  famil- 
iar maxims  of  Von  Bernhardi,  though  they  have  millions  of 
devoted  believers;  we  may  accept  the  utterances  of  the  states- 
men, the  scholars  and  the  newspapers,  which  breathe  a  faith 
that  sacrifice  has  only  intensified. 

"Leas  than  a  week  ago  the  Kaiser  declared,  'We  will  stay  on 
hostile  territory  until  the  enemy  is  vanquished  or  has  collapsed/ 
Maximilian  Harden  spoke  for  the  German  people  when  he  said : 

"We  do  not  stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Europe.  We 
acknowledge  no  such  jurisdiction.  Our  might  shall  create  a 
new  law  of  nations.  It  is  Germany  that  strikes. 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  493 

"Just  as  clearly  Professor  Ernst  Richard,  of  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, uttered  the  thought  of  his  nation  when  he  said  a  few 
weeks  before  he  died: 

"Germany  cannot  lose.  She  will  never  surrender  a  foot  of 
land  nor  an  army.  Every  German  might  be  killed,  and  yet 
Germany  will  not  be  defeated.  German  defeat  would  be  hor- 
rible. It  is  impossible,  unthinkable.  The  march  of  civilization 
would  be  halted  and  its  standards  dragged  in  the  mire  of  dark 
ages. 

"We  need  not  quote  English  leaders;  the  world  knows  that 
that  nation  has  set  its  bulldog  grip  upon  the  purpose  to  fight 
while  it  has  the  breath  of  life  in  it.  But  read  the  solemn  dec- 
laration of  the  premier  of  France  in  the  house  of  deputies : 

"France  will  not  sheathe  the  sword  until  she  has  taken  ven- 
geance for  outraged  right;  until  she  has  regained  the  provinces 
ravished  from  her  by  force;  restored  heroic  Belgium  to  the 
fullness  of  her  material  life  and  political  independence,  and 
until  militarism  has  been  crushed.  We  are  struggling  to  deter- 
mine the  fate  of  the  world — against  barbarity  and  despotism; 
against  the  system  of  provocations  and  methodical  menaces 
which  Germany  called  peace;  against  the  insolent  hegemony  of 
a  military  caste. 

"Or  turn  to  the  words  of  Senator  Baron  de  Constant,  one  of 
the  foremost  of  the  world's  advocates  of  peace  and  a  member  of 
the  tribunal  of  The  Hague: 

"Even  the  most  pacific — those  who  in  good  faith  have  done 
their  duty  in  trying  to  prevent  the  war — all  to-day  would  refuse 
to  conclude  with  Prussian  militarism  a  peace  which  would  be 
only  a  lying  truce.  The  present  war  cannot  end  by  a  pretense 
of  peace.  It  must  end  by  the  crushing  of  German  domination, 
or  it  would  only  have  to  begin  anew. 

"The  judgment  of  thinking  Americans  has  been  expressed 
by  the  New  York  World: 

"  'To  restore  Europe  to  the  condition  of  an  armed  camp  would 
not  be  peace.  The  nightmare  of  militarism  would  still  hang 
over  the  nations,  and  every  laborer  in  Europe — perhaps  every 
laborer  in  America — would  have  a  soldier  on  his  back.  When 
certain  questions  are  submitted  to  the  court  of  cannon  they 
must  be  decided  by  the  court  of  cannon.  Either  all  Europe  will 
come  under  the  yoke  of  military  despotism,,  or  all  Europe  will 
be  free.' 


494  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

"Peace  now  would  be  a  mockery.  The  sovereignty  of  force 
would  be  exalted.  Militarism  would  emerge  triumphant  and 
bring  under  its  iron  sway  the  peoples  of  all  nations.  The  sacri- 
fices of  a  million  lives  would  have  been  vain,  and  this  war 
would  be  but  the  overture  to  a  future  struggle  more  bloody, 
more  destructive  and  more  cruel. 

"Until  the  brazen  idol  of  militarism  is  overthrown  and 
broken  in  pieces  there  will  be  no  rest  for  the  races  of  men.  And 
that  can  be  accomplished  only  by  compulsion  achieved  through 
a  decisive  result.  In  no  other  way  can  an  end  be  made  of  the 
barbaric  era  of  armament,  not  only  in  Germany,  but  in  England, 
in  France  and  in  all  the  countries  of  the  war-sick  world. 

"We  cannot  stop  the  war,  and  it  is  well  that  we  cannot.  We 
would  not,  for  the  sake  of  the  civilization  it  has  wrecked  and 
the  humanity  it  has  crucified." 


CHAPTEK  XIX. 

What  In  the  Light  of  This  War  Should  be  the  Aim  of  This  and 
Other  Civilized  Countries  for  the  Future? 

A.  To  this  question  I  would  reply  in  the  words  of  Col- 
onel Boosevelt,  in  an  article  on  "What  America  Should 
Learn  from  the  War":  (275) 

"What  is  needed  in  international  matters  is  to  create  a  judge, 
and  then  to  put  police  power  back  of  the  judge.  .  .  . 

"The  one  permanent  move  for  obtaining  peace  which  has 
yet  been  suggested,  with  any  reasonable  chance  of  attaining 
its  object,  is  by  an  agreement  among  the  great  powers,  in  which 
each  should  pledge  itself  not  only  to  abide  by  the  decisions  of 
a  common  tribunal,  but  to  back  with  force  the  decisions  of 
that  common  tribunal.  The  great  civilized  nations  of  the  world 
which  do  possess  force,  actual  or  immediately  potential,  should 
combine  by  solemn  agreement  in  a  great  World  League  for  the 
Peace  of  Righteousness.  A  court  should  be  created — a  changed 
and  amplified  Hague  court  would  meet  the  requirements — 
composed  of  representatives  from  each  nation;  these  represen- 
tatives being  sworn  to  act  in  each  case  as  judges,  pure  and 
simple,  and  not  in  a  representative  capacity.  The  nations 
should  agree  on  certain  rights  that  should  not  be  questioned, 
such  as  their  territorial  integrity,  their  rights  to  deal  with 
their  own  domestic  affairs  and  with  such  matters  as  whom  they 
should  or  should  not  admit  to  residence  and  citizenship  within 
their  own  borders.  All  should  guarantee  each  of  their  number 
in  the  possession  of  these  rights.  All  should  agree  that  other 
matters  at  issue  between  any  of  them,  or  between  any  of  them 
and  any  one  of  a  number  of  specified  outside  civilized  nations, 
should  be  submitted  to  the  court  as  above  constituted.  They 
should,  furthermore,  agree  not  only  to  abide,  each  of  them,  by 
(495) 


496  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  "WAR 

the  decision  of  the  court,  but  all  of  them  to  unite  with  their 
military  forces  to  enforce  the  decree  of  the  court,  as  against 
any  recalcitrant  member.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  would 
be  possible  to  agree  on  a  limitation  of  armaments  that  would 
be  real  and  effective. 

"If  any  nation  were  unwilling  to  go  into  such  a  general 
agreement  with  other  nations,  it  would  of  necessity  have  to 
depend  upon  its  own  armed  strength  for  its  own  protection. 
This  is  the  only  alternative.  Treaties  unbacked  by  force  cannot 
be  considered  as  an  alternative  by  any  sober  persons  of  sound 
judgment.  .  .  . 

"Such  a  scheme  as  the  one  briefly  outlined  will  not  bring 
perfect  justice  any  more  than  under  municipal  law  we  obtain 
perfect  justice;  but  it  will  mark  an  immeasurable  advance  on 
Anything  now  existing;  for  it  will  mean  that  at  last  a  long 
stride  has  been  taken  in  the  effort  to  put  the  collective  strength 
of  civilized  mankind  behind  the  collective  purpose  of  mankind 
to  secure  the  peace  of  righteousness,  the  peace  of  justice  among 
the  nations  of  the  earth." 

There  have  been  many  suggestions  as  to  the  aims  of  the 
future  made  since  this  was  written,  but  the  further  they 
depart  from  the  essentials  of  Colonel  Koosevelt's  outline 
the  less  practical  and  the  less  likely  of  general  adoption 
they  become.  It  may  be  worth  while  to  mention  the  most 
recent,  which  is  thus  editorially  described:  (276) 

"The  New  York  Peace  Society  has  proposed  for  the  considera- 
tion, not  only  of  its  members,  but  for  the  public,  a  plan  of 
action  which  seems  to  us  to  have  much  to  commend  it.  It  does 
not  propose  at  present  any  efforts  to  bring  about  the  ending  of 
the  war.  The  psychological  moment  for  such  action  has  not 
arrived.  But  neutral  communities  may  well  consider  what 
should  be  the  conditions  of  a  permanent  peace  when  the  present 
armed  struggle  is  halted.  'A  peace  which  should  come  by  the 
complete  subjugating  of  either  party  in  the  war  might  be  last- 
ing, but  it  would  cost  some  nation  its  essential  liberty.  One 
resulting  from  an  impasse  might  leave  the  contending  nations 
still  powerful  and  both  able  and  willing  to  later  renew  the 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  497 

strife.'  Neither  of  these  conditions  would  give  a  good  basis 
for  permanent  peace.  That  can  be  brought  about  only  by  a 
common  reduction  of  military  forces.  But  such  a  basis  might 
be  afforded  by  the  organization  of  an  International  League  or 
Protective  Alliance,  'so  constituted  as  to  afford  to  each  nation 
the  security  for  which  it  now  looks  to  its  army  and  navy.  No 
one  nation  will  make  itself  helpless  while  others  remain  armed 
to  the  teeth  and  able  to  attack  it  if  they  so  desire,' — a  sentence 
which  we  commend  to  the  consideration  of  those  who  desire  to 
see  this  country  disarm,  or  at  least  content  itself  with  an  in- 
efficient army  and  navy  which  would  render  it  helpless  if  at- 
tacked. 

"Three  methods  of  national  self-protection  are  suggested  by 
the  Peace  Society  as  possible,  besides  that  of  maintaining  an 
army  and  navy  equal  to  any  that  could  be  employed  against 
the  country.  We  may  depend  on  treaties  and  on  the  conscience 
of  mankind  for  their  enforcement.  This  dependence,  the  pitiful 
condition  of  the  Belgians  demonstrates  to  be  wholly  insufficient 
in  the  present  stage  of  moral  development.  We  may  depend 
on  an  international  army  to  be  supported  by  all  the  civilized 
nations  of  the  earth,  and  employed  in  enforcing  the  decrees  of 
an  international  tribunal.  It  is  very  doubtful  whether  any 
nation  ought  under  present  conditions  to  abandon  its  function 
of  preserving  its  citizens  from  hostile  attack,  and  trust  for  pro- 
tection to  an  international  police  which  at  present  exists  only 
in  imagination,  and  it  is  reasonably  certain  that  none  of  the 
great  nations  would  consent  to  do  so.  The  third  plan  is  the  one 
which  the  New  York  Peace  Society  proposes,  and  which  seems 
to  us  well  worthy  of  serious  consideration:  'A  treaty  not  only 
might  arrange  the  boundaries  of  the  states  and  their  colonies, 
but  might  guarantee  the  territories  so  established  against  at- 
tack either  from  within  or  from  without  the  League.  Under 
such  a  treaty  a  country  whose  territory  should  be  attacked  by 
one  or  more  Powers  would  have  a  right  to  call  on  all  remaining 
members  of  the  League  to  assist  in  defending  it.  This  would 
remove  the  need  of  any  force  under  complete  international  con- 
trol, and  it  would  also  remove  the  need  within  the  several  states 
of  any  large  armaments.  Only  troops  enough  would  then  be 
needed  in  each  state  to  enable  it  to  do  its  part  in  enforcing  a 
common  guaranty  of  the  sovereignty  and  the  territory  of  the 
other  states  in  the  Alliance.'  We  may  add  that  'Such  an  Alii- 


498  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

ance  would  not  necessarily  require  a  combination  of  all  the 
civilized  nations.  It  would  only  require  the  combination  of  a 
number  sufficient  in  their  combined  military  strength  to  afford 
reasonable  assurance  that  no  attack  would  be  attempted  against 
any  member  of  the  Alliance  by  any  outside  nation." 

This,  as  will  be  seen,  is  not  unlike  what  Colonel  Eoose- 
velt  advocated  five  months  ago.  The  central  idea  of  each, 
the  idea  of  securing  peace  by  utilizing  the  power  of  all 
nations  willing  to  enter  into  a  mutual  and  general  agree- 
ment to  enforce  the  decrees  of  an  International  Court,  or  at 
least  willing  to  combine  forces  to  prevent  or  resist  attack 
upon  the  territory  of  any  one  of  the  countries  so  agreeing, 
is  the  idea  which  in  some  shape  seems  most  likely  to  be  put 
into  practical  and  effective  form  in  the  future. 

An  analogous  plan,  developed  on  somewhat  different 
lines,  will  be  found  described  on  pp.  368,  369,  370. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

What  General  Opinions  Are  Justified   by  the   Foregoing 
Evidence? 

Summary. 

Reviewing  what  I  have  written,  and,  more  particularly, 
what  I  have  collated,  it  seems  to  me  that  I  have  given  a 
justifiable  basis  for  the  following  opinions: 

The  war  is  a  German-made  war,  having  its  source  and 
inspiration  in  the  writings  and  teachings  of  the  Pan-Ger- 
manists;  in  the  ambitions  of  an  autocratic  military  caste, 
headed  by  a  highly  neurotic,  unbalanced,  and  possibly  men- 
tally diseased  overlord,  with  mediaeval  views  of  his  rela- 
tion to  his  country  and  the  world,  and  supported  by  a 
subservient  corps  of  "learned  men/5  the  majority  of  whom 
are  paid  servants  of  the  State. 

The  war  in  the  last  analysis  was  made  possible  by  the 
megalomania  of  a  prepondering  section  of  the  German 
people,  and  by  the  carefully  nurtured  and  fomented  desire 
for  World  Power. 

To  bring  about  this  condition  the  German  has  been  made 
to  believe  in  the  superiority — which  does  not  exist — of 
his  civilization  to  all  other  civilizations;  in  the  pre- 
eminence—equally non-existent — of  German  "culture";  in 
the  theory  that  Might  makes  Right,  and  that  it  is  only 
in  the  course  of  Nature  that  weaker — and  therefore  pre- 
sumably inferior — peoples  should  yield  their  ideals,  their 
liberties,  and  their  destinies  into  the  hands  of  any  nation 
that  by  the  arbitrament  of  War  should  prove  itself  the 
master  of  all  others. 

As  a  logical  result  of  these  views,  at  a  time  selected  by 
(499) 


500  A  TEXT-BOOK  OP  THE  WAR 

reason  of  the  undoubted  preparedness  of  Germany,  the 
supposed  unreadiness  and  internal  troubles  of  other  na- 
tions, and  the  growing  burden  of  the  German  military 
and  naval  armaments,  the  war  was  precipitated,  on  a  rela- 
tively trivial  and  entirely  avoidable  pretext,  the  other 
great  countries  then  concerned,  England,  Eussia  and 
France,  having  shown  up  to  the  last  moment  an  honest 
and  sincere  desire  for  peace. 

As  an  immediate  step  toward  the  attainment  of  her 
purpose,  Germany  violated  a  solemn  contract  entered  into 
deliberately,  seventy-five  years  ago,  and  affirmed  and  re- 
affirmed by  her  representatives  almost  up  to  the  date  of 
its  abrupt,  but  deliberate  and,  at  first,  admitted  infraction. 

As  a  result  of  this  action  and  of  the  resistance  properly 
offered,  in  conformity  with  the  very  treaty  which  Ger- 
many had  contemptuously  disregarded  and  set  aside,  the 
world  has  witnessed  with  horror  the  brutal  despoilment, 
occupation,  almost  the  annihilation,  of  a  brave,  innocent, 
unoffending,  highly  civilized  and  industrious  country  by 
an  adversary  whose  only  right  in  so  doing  rested  on  the 
might  it  was  able  to  bring  to  bear. 

The  commission  of  this  crime  has  been  followed  by  the 
perpetration  of  various  outrages  upon  the  people  of  the 
devastated  State,  and  upon  their  fundamental  rights  and 
liberties.  It  has  been  aggravated  by  lying  attempts  to 
justify  it,  and  by  even  more  dastardly  efforts  to  impute 
breach  of  faith  and  national  guilt  to  the  victim. 

During  the  entire  period  of  the  war,  Germany  has  dis- 
regarded, cast  aside,  evaded,  or  broken  not  only  many 
international  laws  and  customs,  based  on  underlying  prin- 
ciples of  right  and  justice,  but  also  formal  conventions 
to  which  she  was  herself  a  signatory.  In  each  instance 
the  infraction  has  been  accompanied  or  followed  by  quib- 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  501 

bling,  disingenuous,  or  untruthful  attempts  to  explain, 
palliate  or  vindicate  the  action. 

The  evidence  as  to  atrocities  committed  by  Germans, 
either  as  individuals,  or  as  minor  detachments  or  com- 
mands of  the  army,  is  formidable,  and  is  constantly  increas- 
ing in  both  quantity  and  directness  of  detailed  accusation. 
It  cannot  be  said  to  have  yet  been  given  to  the  world  in 
such  form  as  to  compel  conviction  in  the  mind  of  a  pro- 
German  partisan.  But  the  list  of  collective  "atrocities," 
as  set  forth  in  German  official  orders,  and  as  shown  by  the 
undisputed  occurrences  of  the  war,  is  quite  enough  to 
excite  the  abhorrence  of  civilized  peoples,  and  to  warrant 
the  widespread  and  growing  suspicion  that  the  charges  of 
the  Belgians  and  French  as  to  individual  outrages  are  true. 

Since  the  early  days  of  the  war  there  has  been  in  this 
country  an  organized  German  and  German-American  prop- 
aganda, which  has  spared  nothing  in  time,  money,  or  ex- 
ertion, to  bring  about  a  change  in  the  firmly  fixed  and 
far-flung  conviction  of  this  people  that  in  the  war  Ger- 
many is  a  criminal  aggressor,  fighting  for  her  own  ag- 
grandizement, for  the  imposition  of  her  so-called  "Kul- 
tur"  upon  other  peoples,  and  for  the  attainment  of  a  dom- 
inating position  in  the  world's  affairs. 

These  efforts  to  influence  American  opinion  have  been 
conspicuously  unsuccessful,  although  they  have  been  at- 
tended by  unscrupulous  misrepresentations  of  the  actions 
and  motives  of  other  nations, — including  America, — by 
misstatements  as  to  laws,  treaties,  diplomatic  and  other 
procedures,  and  by  venomous  attempts  to  awaken  inter- 
national jealousies  and  resentments,  especially  toward 
England,  and  next  toward  Japan.  They  have  been  accom- 
panied b}r  clumsy  and  transparent  trials  of  cajoleries  and 
flatteries  addressed  to  America,  which  did  not,  however, 
suffice  to  conceal  the  underlying  dislike  and  contempt. 


502  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

They  have  been  an  unpleasant  surprise  to  Americans,  as 
they  have  shown  that  a  certain  proportion  of  their  fellow- 
citizens  of  German  blood  or  ancestry  were,  in  their  social 
and  political  ideals,  rather  Germans  than  Americans,  and 
that  their  true  allegiance  was  to  a  European  hereditary 
autocracy  rather  than  to  our  own  Democracy.  They  have 
excited  resentment  but  not  alarm;  have  been  a  source  of 
irritation  and  annoyance,  not  of  grave  anxiety  or  appre- 
hension. It  is  to  be  hoped  that  they  are  evidence  merely  of 
the  unbalancing  effects  of  the  terrific  strain  which  this  war 
has  put  upon  all  thinking  people,  and  that  natural  com- 
mon-sense and  kindliness  have  not  been  permanently  ob- 
scured by  demoralizing  and  self-glorifying  literature  and 
by  exaggerated  racial  sympathy. 

In  spite  of  the  war's  stupendous  proportions,  the  im- 
mensity of  its  scope  and  area,  and  the  diverse  and  conflict- 
ing interests  involved,  the  principles  at  stake  are  easily 
recognizable. 

Germany  and  her  more  or  less  insignificant  and  con- 
temptible tools,  Austria  and  Turkey,  represent  absolutism, 
militarism,  feudalism,  medievalism,  despotism,  autocracy. 
The  "Monarchical  idea"  is  a  disingenuous  substitute  for 
these  terms,  with  which,  however,  it  is  in  essence  synony- 
mous. 

The  Allies  are  fighting  for  democratic  liberty,  for  repre- 
sentative government,  for  the  equal  rights  of  individuals, 
whether  relatively  unimportant  persons  or  relatively  pow- 
erless States. 

So  far  as  America  is  concerned,  Germany  and  her  para- 
sites stand  for  everything  in  which  we  do  not  believe.  The 
Allies  represent — and  are  fighting,  starving  and  dying  for 
— everything  that  makes  possible  American  liberty,  hap- 
piness and  independence. 

The  attitude  of  the  American  Government  is  disapproved 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  503 

of  by  large  numbers  of  Americans.  Even  those  who  do  not 
believe  in  actual  physical  intervention  join  with  those  who 
do  so  believe,  in  deprecating  a  policy  of  impenetrable 
silence  in  the  presence  of  international  outrages,  and  of 
open  disregard  for  international  agreements  and  conven- 
tions, combined  with  a  policy  of  over-emphasized  protest  in 
regard  to  commercial  questions  of  vastly  less  real  impor- 
tance. 

So  far  as  America,  as  distinguished  from  the  Adminis- 
tration, is  concerned,  it  may  be  said  that  while  our  tech- 
nical position  is  one  of  "neutrality,"  our  overwhelming 
sympathy  is  with  the  Allies. 

Our  technical  grievance  lies  in  Germany's  deliberate 
flouting  of  conventions  of  which  we  were,  with  her,  a  sig- 
natory ;  our  real  grievance  rests  on  the  danger  to  humanity, 
to  the  ideas  that  lie  at  the  very  foundation  of  our  republic, 
to  our  own  future  security,  that  would  attend  the  success 
of  Germany  in  this  war. 

Our  duties  and  our  interests  coincide. 

We  should  at  the  very  least  strengthen  the  wavering, 
reassure  the  doubting,  give  new  hope  to  the  despairing  by 
proclaiming  to  the  world  our  absolute  and  unreserved 
belief  in  the  right  and  justice  of  the  cause  of  the  Allies, 
and  our  determination  to  see  to  it,  should  the  worst  come 
to  them,  that  they  shall  have  our  material  support  to  our 
last  dollar,  our  last  bushel  of  corn,  our  last  drop  of  blood. 

But  better  it  would  seem  to  many  of  us,  and  in  the  long 
run  more  truly  merciful,  if  we  now,  on  the  basis  of  Ger- 
many's admitted  and  open  disregard  of  solemn  obligations 
entered  into  with  us,  decided  to  cast  the  weight  of  our 
available  force — whatever  it  may  be — into  the  scale.  For 
one,  I  believe  it  would  be  enough  to  determine  the  result 
and  save  tens  of  thousands  of  useful  lives,  months  of  suf- 
fering to  helpless  women  and  children,  and  treasures  of 


504  A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 

civilization  to  the  world  and  to  the  generations  that  are 
to  follow  us. 

We  could,  with  far  less  bloodshed,  and  crime,  and  mis- 
ery, and  destitution,  than  will  otherwise  occur,  insure  a 
victory  for  the  Allies  by  feeding  them,  by  protecting  them, 
by  reinforcing  them,  if  the  war  is  protracted.  We  could 
do  at  once,  and  with  added  speed  and  energy,  what,  in  any 
event,  it  is  our  bounden  duty  to  do,  and  put  ourselves  in 
condition  to  maintain  and  preserve  our  just  rights  on  land 
and  sea. 

We  could  set  an  example  to  all  the  other  neutral  nations 
of  the  world,  and,  not  impossibly,  line  them  up  with  us 
on  the  side  of  right  and  justice.  We  could  shorten  the 
agony  of  the  tens  and  hundreds  of  thousands  in  the  lands 
of  the  combatants,  and  in  those  that  are  being  fought  over. 
We  could  transform  the  German  ships  which  are  taking 
advantage  of  our  docks  and  harbors  into  purveyors  of  food 
and  clothing  to  those  whom  Germany  has  first  rendered 
homeless  and  penniless,  and  then  cast  upon  the  charity  of 
the  world. 

We  could  do  all  this,  to  consider  the  most  material 
aspect  of  the  situation,  with  less  cost  to  the  world  in  life, 
suffering,  or  treasure,  than  would  be  caused  by  a  month's 
prolongation  of  the  war;  and  with  so  much  less  cost  to 
ourselves,  as  compared  with  that  of  -b  possible  later  war 
between  a  Teutonized  Europe  and  America  that  the  present 
suggested  expenditure  of  physical  and  material  resources 
would  be  relatively  insignificant. 

Moreover,  we  would  be  in  the  position  of  having  in  the 
presence  of  a  tremendous  crisis  disregarded  technicalities 
and  brushed  aside  the  sort  of  quibbles  by  which,  for  ex- 
ample, Germany  is  to-day  trying  to  justify  her  rape  of 
Belgium ;  the  position  of  having  taken,  for  the  first  time 
in  history,  a  stand  based  upon  high  moral  international 


A  TEXT-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  505 

obligations.  At  one  step,  whatever  our  present  shameful 
military  and  naval  unpreparedness,  we  would,  by  so  doing, 
assume  the  leadership  of  the  nations,  would  tie  to  us  in 
bonds  of  undying  gratitude  the  peoples  whose  national 
aims  and  purposes  coincide  with  our  own;  would  be  able 
to  exercise  an  irresistible  influence  upon  the  course  of 
coming  events  in  the  direction  of  real  democracy;  would, 
perhaps,  even  aid  in  bringing  out  of  this  welter  and  tur- 
moil the  sort  of  Germany  that  we  would  gladly  welcome 
to  friendship  and  brotherhood. 

It  is  hardly  possible  that,  in  the  final  result,  the  world 
will  permit  the  maiming  and  crippling  of  Belgium  to 
proceed  to  downright  murder;  or  will  submit  tamely  and 
permanently  to  Prussian  domination;  or  will  allow  the 
ultimate  outcome  of  the  war  to  be  adverse  to  the  side  of 
right  and  justice. 

But  it  is  greatly  to  be  wished  that  America  would — as 
she  well  might — convert  hopes  into  certainties,  shorten  the 
necessary  interval  of  suffering  and  disaster,  and  leave  a 
record  for  bravery,  decision  and  far-sighted  humanity  that 
would  be  a  source  of  proud  gratification  to  generations  of 
Americans  yet  unborn. 

Our  unpreparedness  must  be  admitted,  but  with  un- 
beaten and  valiant  friends  there  would  be  less  risk  of  dis- 
aster than  if  we  supinely  await  their  overthrow,  and  then 
have,  practically  alone,  to  battle  for  all  that,  to  us,  makes 
life  worth  living. 

No  one  can  prove  that  such  a  grim  necessity  will  con- 
front us,  but  the  American  who  cannot  see  it  as  a  possible, 
even  a  probable  and  not  very  distant  sequence  of  the  emer- 
gence of  a  "Triumphant  Germany"  from  this  war,  is  blind 
to  the  teachings  of  history  remote  and  recent. 


REFERENCES. 

1.  The  Evening  Telegraph,  Philadelphia,  October  10,  1014. 

2.  The  Nation,  N.  Y.,  November  12,  1914. 

3.  New  York  Evening  Post,  December  26,  1914. 

4.  Harpers'  Weekly,  October,  1914. 

5.  "Germany's  War  Mania,"  p.  21. 

6.  "The  War  and  Culture." 

7.  "The  War  and  America." 

8.  The  Independent,  N.  Y.,  December  7,  1914. 

9.  New  York  Times'  Correspondent. 

10.  "Germany  Embattled,"  p.  96. 

11.  The  Inquirer,  Philadelphia,  March  15,  1915.  • 

12.  The  Public  Ledger,  Philadelphia,  October  4,  1914. 

13.  "Imperial  Germany,"  by  Prince  Billow. 

14.  Prof.  Paulsen,  quoted  by  Dawson  in  "The  Evolution  of  Mod- 

ern Germany." 

15.  The  Public  Ledger,  September  27,  1914. 

16.  The    Saturday   Evening    Post,    Philadelphia,    November    21, 

1914. 

17.  The  Nineteenth  Century,  September,  1914. 

18.  Quoted  by  The  Outlook,  New  York,  October  21,  1914. 

19.  Ibid. 

20.  Frankfurter  Zeitung,  quoted  by  the  Public  Ledger,  February 

1,  1915. 

21.  The  Public  Ledger,  February  15,  1915. 

22.  The  New  York  World. 

23.  The  Literary  Digest,  New  York,  March  6,  1916. 

24.  "Deutschland.  iiber  Alles,"  p.   7. 

25.  Journal  de  Geneve,  November  29,  1914. 

26.  "Germany's  Swelled  Head,"  London,  1907. 

27.  "Germany's  War  Mania,"  p.  13. 

28.  E.  S.  Martin,  "The  War  Week  by  Week,"  p.  79. 

29.  North  American  Review,  October,  1914. 

30.  "Germany's  War  Mania,"  p.  18. 

31.  Ibid.,  p.  82. 

32.  Ibid.,  p.  83. 

33.  Ibid.,  p.  96. 

(507) 


508  REFERENCES 

34.  Ibid.,  p.  81. 

35.  The  Public  Ledger,  November  13,   1914. 

36.  The  Public  Ledger,  October  25,  1914. 

37.  "The  War  and  Culture,"  p.  92. 

38.  The  Outlook,  December  16,  1914. 

39.  "Germany    Embattled  —  an    American    Interpretation,"    pp. 

91,  92. 

40.  The  North  American,  Philadelphia,  October  25,  1914. 

41.  Ibid.,  September  27,  1914. 

42.  Ibid.,  October  26,  1914. 

43.  The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  November  21,  1914. 

44.  The  North  American,  February  1,  1915. 

45.  The  New  York  Times,  October  29,  1914. 

46.  The  North  American,  January  29,  1915. 

47.  The  Outlook,  March  10,  1915. 

48.  The  Public  Ledger,  November  26,  1914. 

49.  The  Sun,  N.  Y.,  January  10,  1915. 

50.  The  Boston  Post,  February  7  and  14,  1915. 

51.  "The  German  Spy  System,"  p.  44 

52.  The  preface  to  "Fighting  in  Flanders." 

53.  "Les  Crimes  Allemands,  d'apres  des  Te"moignages  Allemands." 

54.  The  Public  Ledger,  January  3,  1915. 

55.  The  New  York  Times,  February  7,  1915. 

56.  The  Saturday  Review,  January  30,  1915. 

57.  The  Outlook,  December  30,  1914. 

58.  The  North  American,  December  30,   1914. 

59.  "America  and  the  World  War." 

60.  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  October,  1914. 

61.  The  Outlook,  August  29,  1914. 

62.  The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  November  21,  1914. 

63.  The  North  American,  January  5,  1915. 

64.  "A  Scrap  of  Paper,"  p.  18. 

65.  The  Public  Ledger,  February  14,  1915. 

66.  "What  is  W7rong  with  Germany?"  p.  125. 

67.  "Germany  and  the  Next  War." 

68.  Quoted  by  Reich— op.  cit. 

69.  "Germany's  War  Mania,"  p.  256. 

70.  The  War  Week  by  Week,"  p.  214. 

71.  The  Outlook,  December  9,  1914. 

72.  The  Fortnightly  Review,  January,  1915. 

73.  The  Outlook,  November  4,  1914. 


REFERENCES  509 

74.  "The  War  Week  by  Week,"  p.  73. 

75.  "The  War  and  America,"  1914. 

76.  "The  War  Week  by  Week,"  p.  210. 

77.  The  North  American,  October  6,  1914. 

78.  The  Literary  Digest,  November  7,  1914. 

79.  The  Evening  Bulletin,  Philadelphia,  December  12,  1914. 

80.  "Germany  and  the  Germans,"  p.  539. 

81.  Quoted  by  Keich — op.  cit. 

82.  The  North  American,  October  6,   1914. 

83.  "Germany's  War  Mania,"  p.  10. 

84.  The  Times,  London,  August  15,  1914. 

85.  The  Nation,  October  15,  1914. 

86.  "The  War  Week  by  Week,"  p.  154. 

87.  *"The  War  and  Culture,"  p.   5. 

88.  The  Evening  Post,  N.  Y.,  January  30,  1915. 

89.  The  Times,  London,  July  30,  1900. 

90.  The  Times,  London,  August  11,  1900. 

91.  Emil  Reich — op.  cit. 

92.  The  Public  Ledger,  December  18,  1914. 

93.  The  New  York  Times,  December  18,  1914. 

94.  The  Evening  Sun,  December  18,  1914. 

95.  The  Sun,  December  19,   1914. 

96.  The  Spectator,  November  7,  1914. 

97.  The  Evening  Post,  N.  Y.,  December  23,  1914. 

98.  The  North  American,  December   15,   1914. 

99.  The  Public  Ledger,  January  22,   1915. 

100.  The  Literary  Digest,  December  20,  1914. 

101.  The  Sun,  December  15,  1914. 

102.  The  Sun,  December  18,  1914. 

103.  The  Sun,  December  23,  1914. 

104.  The  Evening  Post,  N.  Y.,  December   15,  1914. 

105.  The  Outlook,  December  23,   1914. 

106.  The  Public  Ledger,  January  24,  1915. 

107.  The  Literary  Digest,  January  9,   1915. 

108.  The  Public  Ledger. 

109.  The  Japan  Times,  November  22,  1914. 

110.  The  Outlook,  December  30,  1914. 

111.  The  Outlook,  December  23,  1914. 

112.  The  World,  February  2,  1915. 

113.  The  North  American,  February  9,  1915, 

114.  The  Outlook,  February  10,  1915. 


510  REFERENCES 

115.  The  Reading  Herald,  Pa.,  January  16,  1915. 

116.  The  Public  Ledger,  January  26,  1915. 

117.  The  Public  Ledger,  January  26,  1915. 

118.  The  Public  Ledger,  December  24,  1914. 

119.  The  Nation,  February  11,  1915. 

120.  Ibid. 

121.  The  Literary  Digest,  February  13,  1915. 

122.  The  New  York  Times,  February  17,   1915. 

123.  The  North  American,  October  11,  1914. 

124.  "Truth  about  Germany:   Facts  about  the  War." 

125.  The  Nation,  page  376,  1914. 

126.  "The  War  and  Culture,"  p.  85. 

127.  Ibid.,  p.  88. 

128.  Miss  Agnes  Repplier,  The  Nation,  December  24,   1914. 

129.  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  February,   1915. 

130.  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  March,  1915. 

131.  The  Sun,  December  20,  1914. 

132.  The  Sun,  December  23,  1914. 

133.  Ibid. 

134.  The  Evening  Post,  December  21,  1914. 

135.  Ibid.,  December  22,  1914. 

136.  The  North  American,  January  21,  1914. 

137.  The  North  American,  December  4,  1914. 

138.  The  Outlook,  December   9,    1914. 

139.  The  Evening  Post,  November  19,  1914. 

140.  The  Nation,  December  3,  1914. 

141.  The  Evening  Post,   December   19,   1914. 

142.  The  Sun,  December  20,   1914. 

143.  The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  November  21,  1914. 

144.  "Social  Insurance  in  Germany,"  W.  H.   Dawson. 

145.  The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  November  21,  1914. 

146.  Ibid. 

147.  Ibid. 

148.  Ibid. 

149.  Staats  Zeitung,  October  10,  1914. 

150.  The  Nation,  November  12,  1914. 

151.  "Germany's  War  Mania,"  p.   21. 

152.  Saturday  Evening  Post,  November  21,   1914. 

153.  Ibid. 

154.  The  Nation,  December  24,  1914. 

155.  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  December,  1914. 


REFERENCES  511 

156.  New  York  Times,  quoted  in  The  Literary  Digest,  January 

23,  1915. 

157.  Scribners,  January,  1915. 

158.  The  Literary  Digest,  January  23,   1915. 

159.  The  Fatherland,  New  York. 

160.  The  Public  Ledger,  February  17,  1915. 

161.  The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  November  21,  1914. 

162.  The  Public  Ledger,  January  26,  1915   (Interview  with  Asso- 

ciated Press). 

163.  North  German  Gazette. 

164.  Quoted  by  Chapman;   "Deutschland  fiber  Alles,"  p.  63. 

165.  New  York  Times,  October  11,  1914. 

166.  Wall   Street  Journal,  December  2,   1914. 

167.  The  Independent,  December  7,  1914. 

168.  The  Literary  Digest,  January  16,  1915. 

169.  The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  November  21,  1914. 

170.  "The  War  and  America." 

171.  "The  Truth  about  Germany." 

172.  The  Saturday  Evening  Post. 

173.  "The  War  and  America,"  p.  43. 

174.  Ibid.,  p.  90. 

175.  The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  November  21,   1914. 

176.  Ibid. 

177.  Preussischer  Jahrbuch,  December,  1913. 

178.  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  March,  1915. 

179.  The  New  York  Herald,  October  5,  1914. 

180.  Speech  in  the  Reichstag,  January  23,  1914. 

181.  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  December,  1914. 

182.  The  Zukunft    (quoted   by   The   Literary   Digest,    March    6, 

1915). 

183.  The  Outlook,  1914. 

184.  Quoted  by  E.  S.  Martin,  "The  War  Week  by  Week,"  p.  95. 

185.  The  Literary  Digest,  October  3,  1914. 

186.  Nature,  October  2,  1914. 

187.  The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  November  21,   1914. 

188.  The  Westminster  Gazette,  November,   1914. 

189.  "The  War  and  Culture,"  p.  59. 

190.  "The  War  Week  by  Week,"  p.  142. 

191.  The  North  American,  December  16,  1914. 

192.  The  Evening  Ledger,   Philadelphia,   January  27,   1915. 

193.  The  Independent,  January,   1915. 


512  REFERENCES 

194.  The  Evening  Sun,  N.  Y.,  January  25,  1915. 

195.  The  Public  Ledger,  January  1,  1915. 

196.  The  Keview  of  Reviews,  February,  1915. 

197.  The  Nation,  October  15,  1914. 

198.  "The  War  Week  by  Week/'  p.  146. 

199.  "Why  and  How  a  War  Lord  Wages  War." 

200.  The  Evening  Bulletin,  Philadelphia,  October  17,  1914. 

201.  The  Outlook,  October  7,  1914. 

202.  The  Record,  Philadelphia,  November  3,  1914. 

203.  The  Evening  Post,  N.  Y.,  November  4,  1914. 

204.  The  New  York  Tribune,  November  12,  1914. 

205.  The  North  American,  October  18,  1914. 

206.  The  New  York  Tribune,  November  10,  1914. 

207.  The  Public  Ledger,  October  26,  1914. 

208.  The  Outlook,  November  4,  1914. 

209.  "The  War  Week  by  Week,"  p.  54. 

210.  "The  War  and  Culture,"  p.  100. 

211.  The  Spectator,  London,  September  26,  1914. 

212.  "The  War  Week  by  Week,"  p.  133. 

213.  "Germany  and  the  Germans,"  p.  547. 

214.  "The  War  Week  by  Week,"  p.  139. 

215.  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  1914. 

216.  "The  War  and  Culture,"  p.  69. 

217.  The  New  York  Tribune,  November  10,  1914. 

218.  "The  War  and  America,"  p.  205. 

219.  "The  War  and  Culture,"  p.  78. 

220.  Ibid.,  p.  76. 

221.  The  Outlook,  October  21,  1914. 

222.  Journal  de  Geneve,  November  29,  1914. 

223.  The  San  Diego  Union. 

224.  The  Public  Ledger,  December  22,  1914. 

225.  Ibid.,  January  24,  1915. 

226.  Ibid. 

227.  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  February,  1915. 

228.  Ibid. 

229.  Yale  Review,  January,  1915. 

230.  The  London  Observer,  January  17,  1915. 

231.  The  Public  Ledger,  January  28,  1915. 

232.  Ibid.,  February  6,  1915. 

233.  The  North  American,  February  15,  1915. 

234.  The  Public  Ledger,  February  15,  1915. 


REFERENCES  513 

235.  Ibid. 

236.  Ibid.,  January  24,  1915. 

237.  The  Outlook,  February  3,  1915. 

238.  E.  S.  Martin,  Editor  of  "Life." 

239.  "The  War  Week  by  Week,"  p.  161. 

240.  The  Evening  Telegraph,  January  1,  1915. 

241.  The  Public  Ledger,  January  24,  1915. 

242.  Ibid.,  February  9,  1915. 

243.  Ibid.,  January  29,  1915. 

244.  Ibid. 

245.  Mr.  Monroe  Buckley— Ibid.,  January  19,  1915. 

246.  The  Sun,  February  3,  1915. 

247.  The  North  American,  January  22,  1915. 

248.  The  Daily  Telegraph,  January  2,  1915. 

249.  The  Literary  Digest,  January  9,  1915. 

250.  The  Spectator,  January  9,  1915. 

251.  The  New  York  Times,  February  3,  1915. 

252.  The   Chronicle;    quoted  by  The  Literary  Digest,  December 

12,  1914. 

253.  The  Literary  Digest,  December  12,  1914. 

254.  Ibid.,  January  2,  1915. 

255.  The  North  American,  February  26,  1915. 

256.  Ibid.,  February  11,  1915. 

257.  The  Outlook,  February  3,  1915. 

258.  The  North  American,  January  25,  1915. 

259.  "The  War  and  Culture,"  p.  100. 

260.  The  North  American,  December  23,  1914. 

261.  The  Outlook,  December  2,  1914. 

262.  The  New  York  Times,  December  15,  1914. 

263.  Albert  B.  Weimer,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia, 

264.  The  Literary  Digest,  January  23,  1915. 

265.  Ibid. 

266.  Ibid.,  December  5,  1914. 

267.  The  Outlook,  September  2,  1914. 

268.  Ibid. 

269.  The  Outlook,  January  6,  1915. 

270.  Ibid.,  November  25,  1914. 

271.  Ibid.,  January  27,  1915. 

272.  The  Review  of  Reviews,  February,  1915. 

273.  The  Literary  Digest,  January  30,  1915. 

274.  The  North  American,  February  5,  1915. 

33 


514  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

275.  Ibid.,  October  18,  1914. 

276.  The  Outlook,  March  17,  1915. 

277.  "The  German  Spy  System/'  p.  75. 

278.  The  Nation,  March  11,  1915. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

In  addition  I  have  consulted : 

"Pan-Germanism,"  by  Roland  G.  Usher. 

"The  Evolution  of  Modern  Germany,"  by  W.  H.  Dawson. 

"Germany  and  England,"  by  Prof.  J.  A.  Cramb. 

"Men  Around  the  Kaiser,"  by  F.  W.  Wile. 

"Why  We  Are  at  War,"  Great  Britain's  Case,  by  members  of  the 

Oxford  Faculty  of  Modern  History. 
"Nietzsche   and  Treitschke:     The   Worship  of   Power   in   Modern 

Germany,"  by  Ernest  Barker,  M.A. 
"The  Germans"  (in  two  parts),  by  C.  R.  L.  Fletcher. 
"The  War  and  the  British  Dominions,"  by  M.  E.  Egerton. 
"India  and  the  War,"  by  Sir  Ernest  J.  Trevelyan. 
"The  Deeper  Causes  of  the  War,"  by  Dr.  Sanday. 
''The  Nations  of  Europe:     The  Causes  and  Issues  of  the  Great 

War,"  by  Charles  Morris. 
'The  German  War,"  by  A.  Conan  Doyle. 
"The  Audacious  War,"  by  C.  W.  Barren. 
"The  German  Spy  System." 

"What  I  Found  Out  in  the  House  of  a  German  Prince." 
"What  is  Wrong  with  Germany  ?"  by  W.  H.  Dawson. 
"A  Scrap  of  Paper,"  by  Dr.  E.  J.  Dillon. 
"Has  Belgium  Saved  Europe?"  by  Dr.  Charles  Sarolea. 
"The  Real  Truth  about  Germany,"  by  Douglas  Sladen. 
"The  Evidence  in  the  Case,"  by  James  M.  Beck. 
"The  Anglo-German  Problem,"  by  Dr.  Charles  fearolea. 
"America  and  the  World  War,"  by  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
"Deutschland  iiber  Alles,"  by  John  Jay  Chapman. 
"The  War  and  Culture,"  by  John  Cowper  Powys. 
"The  War  Week  by  Week,"  by  E.  S.  Martin. 
"Le  Role  de  la  France,"  by  Pierre  Albin. 
"Pastoral  Letter  of  Cardinal  Mercier." 
"Tae  Case  of  Belgium  in  the  Present  War." 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  515 

Memories  of  Belgium." 
"Les   Crimes   Allemands,    d'apr£s    des    Temoignages    Allemands," 

by  Joseph  Bedier. 
"German  Atrocities  in  France." 
"The  American  versus  the  German  Viewpoint  of  the  War,"  by 

Dr.  Morton  Prince. 

"Imperial  Germany,"  by  Prince  Billow. 
"Germany's  Swelled  Head,"  by  Emil  Reich. 
"The  War  and  America,"  by  Prof.  Munsterberg. 
"Truth  about  Germany:      Facts  about  the  War — Why  and  How 

a  War  Lord  Wages  War,"  by  Joseph  C.  Fraley. 
"Fighting  in  Flanders,"  by  E.  Alexander  Powell. 
"King  Albert's  Book,"  A  Tribute  to  the  King  and  the  People  of 

Belgium. 

"Germany  and  the  Next  War,"  by  Gen,  Friedrich  Von  Bernhardi. 
"How  Germany  Makes  War,"  by  Gen.  Friedrich  Von  Bernhardi. 
"Britain  as  Germany's  Vassal,"  by  Gen.  Friedrich  Von  Bernhardi. 
"Texts  of  Hague  Peace  Conference,  1899-1907,"  by  James  Brown 

Scott. 

"The  War  in  Europe,"  by  Alfred  Bushnell  Hart. 
"The  Fleets  At  War,"  by  Archibald  Hurd. 
"How  the  War  Began,"  by  J.  M.  Kennedy. 
"The  Mainsprings  of  Russia,"  by  Hon.  Maurice  Baring. 
"The  Russian  Army  From  Within,"  by  W.  B.  Stevens. 
"Secrets  of  the  German  War  Office,"  by  Dr.  A.  K.  Graves. 
"With  the  Allies,"  by  Richard  Harding  Davis. 
"The  Pan- Angles,"  by  Sinclair  Kennedy. 
"One  American's  Opinion  of  The  War,"  by  F.  W.  Whitridge. 
"Treitschke — His  Doctrines  and  His  Life,"  by  Adolph  Hausrath. 
"The  Great  War,"  by  F.  H.  Simonds. 
"Paris  War  Days,"  by  Charles  Inman  Barnard. 
"France  Herself  Again,"  by  Ernest  Dimnet. 
"Germany  Embattled,"  by  Oswald  Garrison  Villard. 
"Germany's  War  Mania,"  Teutonic  Point  of  View  Officially  Stated 

by  Her  Leaders. 

"The  German  Enigma,"  by  Georges  Bourdon. 
"The  War  That  Will  End  War,"  by  H.  G.  Wells. 
"What  is  Wrong  With  Germany  ?"  by  William  Harbutt  Dawson. 
"The  Diplomatic  History  of  the  War,"  by  M.  P.  Price. 


INDEX  OF  NAMES. 

ABBOTT,  LYMAN — Editor;  Author;  A.B.  New  York  University ; 
D.D.  Harvard,  1890;  Yale,  1893;  Congregational  min- 
ister; Editor  of  "The  Outlook."  Born,  Mass.,  1835, 

361,  362,  466 

ACEL,  DR.  EBVIN — Managing  Editor  of  the  "Hungarian- 
American  Reformed  Sentinel,"  and  City  Editor  of  the 
"Hungarian  Daily"  160 

ADAMS,  CHARLES  FRANCIS — Author,  Political  Economist,  ex- 
soldier,  Railway  President,  and  Publicist.  Born,  Bos- 
ton, 1835.  Mr.  Adams'  greatly  to  be  regretted  death  oc- 
curred while  this  book  was  on  press  194-95 

ADAMS,  GEORGE  BURTON — Professor  of  History  at  Yale;  His- 
torian, Author,  Editor.  Born,  Vermont,  1851 344 

ALBERT,  GEHEIMRAT  HEINRICH  FRIEDRICH — Connected  with 
the  Imperial  Ministry  of  the  Interior;  ex-assistant  Com- 
missioner at  the  World's  Fair  at  St.  Louis;  Ex-Imperial 
German  Commissioner  at  the  International  Exposition  at 
Brussels.  Born,  Germany,  1874 35,  257-59,  281 

APPEL,  OTTO — Botanist  and  Biologist.  Born,  Coburg,  Ger- 
many, 1867  453,  477 

ATHERTON,     GERTRUDE — Novelist    and     Story- writer ;     Great 

grand-niece  of  Benjamin  Franklin.     Born,  San  Francisco.  134 

BABSON,  ROGER  WARD — Statistician;  A.B.  Massachusetts  In- 
stitute of  Technology,  1898;  Lecturer  in  Same  on  Sta- 
tistics and  Economics.  Born,  Gloucester,  Mass.,  1875...  450 

BACON,  ROBERT — Ex- Ambassador  to  France;  A.B.  Harvard, 
1880;  ex- Assistant  to  Secretary  of  State  of  the  U.  S.A.; 
ex-Secretary  of  State,  U.  S.  A.  Born,  Boston,  1860, 

298,   344,  440 

BARCHFELD,  ANDREW  JACKSON — Republican  Congressman 
from  Pittsburgh,  Penna. ;  Graduate  of  Jefferson  Medical 
College,  1884.  Born,  Pittsburgh,  1863  245 

BARKER,  J.  ELLIS — Author,  Lecturer  and  Journalist;  edu- 
cated in  Cologne ;  contributor  to  many  magazines ;  Author 
of  "The  Rise  and  Decline  of  the  Netherlands,"  and 

"Modern  Germany."     Born,  Cologne,  1870 39 

(517) 


518  INDEX   OF  NAMES 

BABNABDISTON,  COLONEL  NATHANIEL  WALTER — M.  V.  O.  on 
the  General  Staff  of  the  British  Army  since  1910;  served 
in  South  African  War ;  has  been  military  attache"  at  Brus- 
sels, the  Hague,  and  Scandinavian  Courts.  Born,  Suf- 
folk, 1858  126,  265 

BABTHOLDT,  RICHARD — Congressman,  Missouri;  ex-Editor. 
Born,  Germany,  1855, 

204,   206,  207,  209,   225-26-27,   245,  295,  435 

BASSEBMANN,  ERNST — Head  of  the  Central  Committee  of  the 
German  National  Liberals  and  of  various  other  public 
organizations.  Born,  Germany,  1854  . . 198 

BATE,  BARON  DE — Archaeologist  and  traveler;  ex-President  of 
the  French  Society  of  Antiquaries;  has  been  in  charge 
of  various  official  Archaeological  and  Ethnographic  Mis- 
sions; author  of  works  on  Pre-historic  and  Scandinavian 
Archaeology,  on  Barbarian  Art,  and  on  Travel  in  the 
chief  countries  of  Europe  and  Asia.  Born,  Paris,  1853 . .  294 

BATE,  MME.  THE  BARONESS  DE — A  well-known  Poetess,  col- 
lector, and  leader  in  French  Intellectual  Society;  her 
last  book  was  "L/Ame  Brulante,"  which  was  crowned  by 
the  French  Academy  294 

BECK,  JAMES  MONTGOMERY — A  distinguished  lawyer  and 
orator;  United  States  Attorney,  Eastern  District  of  Pa., 
1896-1900;  Assistant  Attorney- General,  United  States, 
1900-1903.  Born  in  Philadelphia,  1861;  LL.D.  (Hon.) 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  1910 35,  71,  250,  371,  481 

BEDIER,  JOSEPH — Professor  at  the  College  of  France;  a  well- 
known  scholar  "of  high  rank,  whose  business  it  is  to 
study  documents  and  whose  writings  are  of  recognized 
authority."  116 

BEGBIE,  HAROLD — Author  and  Journalist;  wrote  "Religion 
and  the  Crisis,"  "Rising  Dawn,"  the  Political  Struw- 
welpeter  Series,  etc.  Born,  Suffolk,  England,  1871 429 

BELLOC,  HILAIRE — Head  of  English  Department,  East  London 
College;  educated  at  Oxford  (first  class  in  Honor  His- 
tory Schools)  ;  Author  of  "Paris,"  "Robespierre,"  "Esto 
Perpetua,"  "The  Servile  State,"  etc.  Born,  1870 450 

BELOW- SALESKE,  KONRAD  A. — Ex-Minister  Plenipotentiary 
and  Envoy  Extraordinary  to  Brussels.  Born,  Germany, 
1866  .  269 


INDEX   OF  NAMES  519 

BENNETT,  ENOCH  ARNOLD — Author,  Journalist  and  Play- 
wright. Born,  North  Staffordshire,  England,  1867 139 

BEBNHABDI,  FEIEDBICH  VON — General  of  Cavalry;  Military 
author,  whose  works  have  recently  attracted  the  attention 
of  the  world,  as  foreshadowing  the  present  campaign  and 
the  ultimate  aims  of  Germany.  Born,  St.  Petersburg, 

1849    18,   156,    198,   254,  356 

.  BEBNSTOBFF,  COUNT  JOHANN-HEINBICH  VON — German  Am- 
bassador at  Washington;  Hon.  LL.D.  of  Columbia,  Chi- 
cago, and  Princeton.  Married  Miss  Luckemeyer,  of  New 
York.  Born,  London,  1862, 

93-4,  198,  205,  207,  270,  290-93,  351,  398,  425 

BETHMANN-HOLLWEG,      THEOBALD      VON — Imperial      German 

Chancellor.    Born,  Germany,  1856 96,  300,  301,  305,  472 

BOEHN,  HANS  M.  L.  VON — General  of  Cavalry;  was  "un- 
attached" at  the  opening  of  the  war;  in  1900-01  was  on 
the  China  Expedition;  in  1907  was  Major-General  com- 
manding in  Berlin.  Born,  Germany,  1853  113 

BBYAN,  W.  J. — Editor;  Chautauqua  Lecturer;  and  at  present 
Secretary  of  State  for  the  United  States'.  Defeated 
three  times  as  a  candidate  for  President.  Born,  Salem, 
111.,  1860 400,  420,  425,  436,  485 

BBYCE,  JAMES,  RT.  HON.  VISCOUNT — One  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  British  authors  and  Statesmen;  at  one 
time  (1870-1893)  Regius  Professor  of  Civil  Law  at  Ox- 
ford; recipient  of  honorary  degrees  from  learned  so- 
cieties and  institutions  in  all  parts  of  the  world;  ex- Am- 
bassador to  Washington;  author  of  "The  American  Com- 
monwealth." Born,  Glasgow,  1838 20,  180,  255 

BUCKLEY,  MONBOE — Member  of  the  Philadelphia  Bar. 

BiiLOW,    GENEBAL   GAEL   VON — Recently   Commander-in-Chief 

in  Belgium.    Born,  Berlin,  1846 101,  102 

BUBGESS,  JOHN  WILLIAM — Dean  of  Faculty  of  Political 
Science,  Columbia  University,  since  1890;  educated  at 
Amherst,  Gottingen,  Leipzig,  Berlin;  Exchange  Professor 
at  Berlin,  1906-07;  decorated,  Order  of  Prussian  Crown, 
by  the  Kaiser,  and  Order  of  the  Albrechts,  by  the  King 
of  Saxony,  1907.  Born,  Tennessee,  1844 270 

CADWALADEB,  JOHN — Lawyer  and  Publicist.;  Trustee  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania;  President  of  the  Pennsyl- 


520  INDEX   OF  NAMES 

vania  Institution  for  the  Blind;  Collector  of  the  Port  of 
Philadelphia,  1885-89.  Born,  Philadelphia,  1843 389 

CAINE,  HAUL — Novelist  and  Dramatist;  Poet  and  Journalist; 
intimate  friend  of  D.  S.  Rossetti,  the  poet  and  painter, 
with  whom  he  lived  until  his  death.  Born,  1853,  of 
Manx  and  Cumberland  parentage  139 

CALWEB,  RICHARD — Author,  Editor,  and  Journalist;  So- 
cialist; author  of  "Introduction  to  Socialism,"  etc.  Born, 
Germany,  1868  158 

CHAMBERLAIN,  HOUSTON  STEWART — Writer;  married  to  the 
daughter  of  Richard  Wagner,  the  composer;  educated  on 
the  Continent;  has  lived  in  Dresden,  Vienna  and  else- 
where in  Germany  and  Austria;  author  of  "Die  Grund- 
lagen  Des  XIX  Jahrhunderts,"  1899.  Born,  Southsea, 
England,  1855  36 

CHAPMAN,  JOHN  JAY — Author,  Essayist ;  member  of  the  New 

York  bar;  A.M.  Harvard,  1885.  Born,  New  York,  1862. .  44 

CHESTERTON,  GILBERT  KEITH — Journalist  and  Author;  a  wit 
and  a  master  of  paradox;  author  of  "The  Victorian 
Age  in  Literature,"  "Dickens,"  etc.,  etc.  Born,  London, 
1874  69,  139 

CHICHESTER,  REAR  ADMIRAL  SIR  EDWARD — Ninth  Bart.  Naval 
A.  D.  C.  to  Queen  Victoria,  1899-1901;  Naval  A.  D.  C.  to 
the  King,  1901-2;  Rear- Admiral,  1902;  served  South 
Africa,  1899-1901;  died  September  17,  1906.  Was  in 
command  of  armoured  cruiser  "Immortality,"  at  Manila, 
1898,  and  was  the  senior  British  Naval  Officer.  His  rank 
was  then  that  of  Captain.  Born,  England,  1849 163,  180 

CHOATE,  JOSEPH  H. — Distinguished  Lawyer,  Diplomat,  Pub- 
lic Speaker  and  Statesman;  United  States  Ambassador 
to  Great  Britain,  1899-1905;  A.B.,  Harvard,  1852;  Hon- 
orary Degrees  from  Harvard,  Cambridge,  Edinburgh, 
Yale,  Oxford,  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  other  in- 
stitutions. Born,  Salem,  Mass.,  1832  132 

CLARK,  CHAMP — Congressman;  Speaker  of  the  House.  Born, 

Kentucky,  1870 350,  485-86 

COIT,  STANTON — President  of  the  West  London  Ethical  So- 
ciety; educated,  Amherst,  Columbia,  Berlin;  author  of 
"National  Idealism  and  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer," 
"The  Message  of  Man,"  etc.  Born,  Columbus,  Ohio, 
1857  .  481 


INDEX   OF  NAMES  521 

COLLIER,  PRICE — Author;  Essayist;  European  Editor  of  "The 
Forum";  Officer  in  United  States  Navy  during  Spanish- 
American  War;  author  of  "England  and  the  English," 
Germany  and  the  Germans."  Born,  1860, 

141,   142,  176,   177,  355 

CONE,  HELEN  GRAY — Head  of  the  Department  of  English 
Literature  at  the  New  York  Normal  College;  an  Amer- 
ican poet  of  charm  and  distinction;  author  of  many 
patriotic  songs  and  ballads.  Born,  New  York,  1859 382 

COUDERT,  FREDERICK  REN£ — Lawyer;  A.M.  Columbia  Univer- 
sity. Born,  New  York,  1871 391,  404 

DAVIS,  RICHARD  HARDING — Novelist;  Playwright;  educated  at 
Lehigh  and  Johns  Hopkins;  war  correspondent  in  the 
Turkish-Greek,  Spanish-American,  South  African,  and 
Russo-Japanese  wars.  Born,  Philadelphia,  1864...  113,  296 

DAWSON,  WILLIAM  HARBTTTT — Educator  and  Author;  edu- 
cated at  Berlin  University;  married  to  daughter  of  late 
Dr.  Emil  Miinsterberg,  President  of  Berlin  Poor  Law 
Administration;  author  of  "Evolution  of  Modern  Ger- 
many," "Germany  and  the  Germans,"  "Social  Switzer- 
land," "The  German  Workman,"  etc.  Born,  England, 
1860  291-93 

DELBRUCK,  HANS — The  successor  of  Treitschke  in  the  Chair 
of  History  at  the  University  of  Berlin.  For  nine  years 
Professor  Delbruck  sat  in  the  Prussian  Diet  and  in  the 
Reichstag.  He  was  also  with  Treitschke,  co-editor  of  the 
"Preussi&che  Jahrbuch."  He  is  now  sole  editor  of  that 
influential  monthly.  He  was  at  one  time  a  tutor  in  the 
royal  household,  and  is  a  friend  of  the  Kaiser.  Born, 
Bergen  auf  Rugen,  1848 158,  169,  260-63,  302,  305,  308 

DEBNBURG,  BERNHARD — Ex-Editor,  ex-Bank  Director,  ex-Col- 
nial  Secretary,  1907-1910;  was  removed  from  the  latter 
position  (according  to  Wile,  "The  Men  Around  the 
Kaiser"),  on  account  of  his  Semitic  blood.  Born,  Darm- 
stadt, 1865.  20,  34,  43-65,  78-83,  90-95,  207,  216,  240,  243 
254,  263-69,  270,  285-88,  300,  304-307,  317,  350 

DEVOY,  JOHN — Editor  of  "The  Gaelic  American,"  New  York; 
has  been  prominent  in  the  Fenian  movement;  at  present 
a  leader  of  the  Clan-na-Gael  245 

DEWEY,  GEORGE; — Admiral  of  the  Navy,  U.  S.  A. ;  a  graduate 
of  United  States  Naval  Academy,  1858 ;  LL.D,  University 


522  INDEX    OF   NAMES 

of  Pennsylvania,  and  Princeton,  1898;  saw  service  all 
through  the  Civil  War;  in  command  of  Asiatic  Squadron, 
May  1,  1898,  at  Battle  of  Manila  Bay  where  the  Spanish 
Asiatic  Squadron  was  completely  annihilated,  without  the 
loss  of  a  man  on  the  American  side.  Born,  Montpelier, 
Vermont,  1837  163,  164 

DICKINSON,  G.  LOWES — Publicist ;  Fellow  and  Lecturer  King's 
College,  Cambridge;  educated  at  Cambridge;  Lecturer  in 
the  London  School  of  Economics  and  Political  Science; 
author  of  "Letters  of  a  Chinese  Official,"  "A  Modern 
Symposium,"  etc.  Born,  England 210 

DICKSON,  SAMUEL — Lawyer;  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Bar;  Trustee  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
Born,  Newburgh,  N.  Y.,  1837  390 

DIEDERICHS,  ADMIRAL  OTTO  VON — Ex-Staff  Officer  of  the  Ger- 
man Marine;  Admiral  in  January,  1902;  put  on  "unat- 
tached list"  November,  1902.  Born,  Minden,  1843 163,  180 

DILLON,  EMILE  JOSEPH — Noted  correspondent  of  the  London 
"Daily  Telegraph";  educated  College  de  France,  Paris; 
universities  of  Innsbruck,  Leipzig,  Tiibingen,  etc.;  vari- 
ous degrees  from  St.  Petersburg,  Louvain,  Kharkoff; 
author  of  numerous  books  in  English  and  Russian. 
Born,  Ireland  71,  147 

DISFUETH  VON — Major-General;  recently  commanding  Tenth 

Brigade  of  Infantry 42,  200,  280,  309 

DOYLE,  SIB  ARTHUR  CONAN — Novelist;  M.D.  Edinburgh; 
author  of  "The  Memories  of  Sherlock  Holmes,"  "The 
Great  Boer  War," -etc.;  son  of  Charles  Doyle,  artist,  and 
nephew  of  Richard  Doyle  of  "Punch."  Born,  Edin- 
burgh, 1859  139 

DRAKE,  HERBERT  ARMITAQE — Lawyer,  of  Camden,  N.  J., 

U.  S.  A 366 

DRYANDER,  ERNST — Theologian;  author  of  various  works  on 

religion  and  on  the  Gospels.  Born,  Halle,  1843  198 

ELIOT,  CHARLES — Mathematician,  chemist,  scientist,  educa- 
tor; President  of  Harvard  University  1869-1909;  now 
President  Emeritus.  Born,  Boston,  1834 196,  343 

EUCKEN,  PROFESSOR  RUDOLF  CHRISTIAN — Ethical  and  relig- 
ious writer;  doctor  of  laws,  letters  and  philosophy. 
Born  in  East  Frie&land,  1846  198,  243 


INDEX   OF  NAMES  523 

FALKENHAYN,  LIEUTENANT- GENERAL  ERICH,  G.  A.  S.,  VON — 
Ex- War  Minister;  successor  to  von  Moltke  as  Chief  of 
the  General  Staff;  ex-instructor  of  the  Crown  Prince; 
was  on  the  staff  of  Count  von  Waldersee  during  the 
Boxer  rebellion;  "as  Minister  of  War  he  was  uncompro- 
mising in  his  support  of  the  officers  whose  policy  in 
Alsace  precipitated  the  Zabern  disorders."  Born,  Ger- 
many, 1862  310,  453,  477 

FAUST,  ALBERT  B. — Author;  Professor  of  German  in  Cornell 

University.  Born,  Baltimore,  Md.,  1870 245 

FERRERO,  FELICE — Italian  journalist;  brother  of  Guglielmo 

Ferrero,  the  historian  472 

FERRERO,  GUGLIELMO — The  Italian  historian  of  the  Roman 

Republic  and  Empire  356,  450 

FRALEY,  JOSEPH  C. — Lawyer,  with  national  reputation  as 
specialist  in  the  laws  of  patents;  graduate  of  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania,  Born,  Philadelphia, 79,  90,  171,  341 

FRANCKE,  KUNO — Professor  of  History  of  German  Culture, 
Harvard,  since  1896,  and  since  1902  Curator  Germanic 
Museum;,  Harvard;  Chevalier  Royal  Prussian  Order  Red 
Eagle.  Born,  Germany,  1855  174,  231 

FRENCH,  FIELD  MARSHAL  SIR  JOHN  DENTON  PINKSTONE — 
Son  of  Captain  French,  R.  N.;  entered  British  Navy  at 
age  of  14;  served  as  naval  cadet  and  midshipman  for  four 
years;  entered  army  in  1874;  served  in  the  Soudan  cam- 
paign and  in  South  African  War.  Born,  Kent,  Eng- 
land, 1852  20 

FULDA,  LUDWIG — Doctor  of  Philosophy;  educated  at  Frank- 
f  ort-on-the-Main ;  studied  at  Heidelberg,  Berlin  and 
Leipzig,  1880-83.  Born,  Frankf ort-on-the-Main,  1862..  298 

FULLER,  PAUL — A  member  of  the  well-known  legal  firm  of 
Coudert  Brothers,  in  New  York;  a  recognized  authority 
upon  questions  of  international  law  385 

FULLERTON,  GEORGE  STUART — Author;  Professor  of  Philosophy 
in  Columbia  University  since  1904;  ex- Vice  Provost  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  Born,  India,  1859  ....  196 

FURNESS,  WILLIAM  HENRY,  3RD — Author;  physician;  traveler; 
explorer;  A.B.,  Harvard,  1888;  M.D.,  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, 1891;  son  of  Horace  Howard  Furness,  the 
Shakespearean  author.  Born.  Wallingford,  Pa.,  1866...  219 


524  INDEX   OF  NAME'S 

GOLTZ,  FIELD  MARSHAL  BARON  VON  DER — Appointed  Military 
Governor  of  Belgium,  August  27,  1914;  took  command 
immediately;  a  native  of  East  Prussia ;  sent  to  reorganize 
the  Turkish  Army,  1883-96;  writer  on  military  subjects; 
relieved  of  Belgian  duty  in  November,  1914,  and  sent  to 
Constantinople;  it  is  thought  by  many  critics  that  the 
performance  of  the  Turkish  Army  during  the  Balkan 
wars  did  not  reflect  much  credit  upon  him;  nevertheless, 
in  Germany,  he  is  said  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 
greatest  of  their  strategists.  Born,  Germany,  1843 . . .  103,  453 

GOSCHEN,  RT.  HON.  SIR  WILLIAM  EDWARD — British  Ambas- 
sador at  Berlin  since  1908;  educated  at  Rugby  and  Ox- 
ford; has  been  in  the  British  diplomatic  service  since 
1869,  serving  in  various  capacities  at  Madrid,  Buenos 
Ayres,  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Constantinople,  Pekin,  Copenhagen, 
Lisbon,  Washington,  St.  Petersburg,  Belgrade  and  Vienna. 
Born,  England,  1847  91 

GREY,  RT.  HON.  SIR  EDWARD — British  Secretary  of  State  for 
Foreign  Affairs  since  1905;  educated  at  Winchester  and 
Oxford;  was  Under-Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Af- 
fairs, 1892-95;  member  Parliament  (Liberal)  for  Berwick- 
on-Tweed  since  1885.  Born,  England,  1862.. 91,  250,  252,  268 

GROSSCUP,  PETER  STEWART,  JUDGE — Educated  Wittenberg  Col- 
lege. Born,  Ohio,  1852 270 

GUILD,  CURTIS — Journalist,  ex-soldier,  ex-Ambassador  to 
Mexico,  ex- Ambassador  to  Russia;  A.B.  (summa  cum 
laude),  Harvard,  1881.  Born,  Boston,  1860 412,  440 

GUYOT,  YVES — A  distinguished  French  publicist  and  writer 
on  statistical,  political  and  economic  subjects.  Born, 
Dinan,  1843  452 

GWINNEB,  ARTHUR  VON — Director  of  the  Deutschen  Bank. 

Born,  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  1856  '198 

ILECKEL,  PROFESSOR  ERNST — Biologist  and  Scientist;  author 
of  noteworthy  books  on  evolution  and  on  many  branches 
of  zoology.  Born,  Potsdam,  Germany,  1834. .  .26,  27,  198,  304 

HALE,  WILLIAM  GARDNER — Professor  of  Latin,  University  of 
Chicago;  A.B.,  Harvard,  1870;  LL.D.,  Princeton,  St.  An- 
drew's and  Aberdeen;  distinguished  philologist.  Born, 
Savannah,  1849  347,  357 

HALL,  THOMAS  C. — Theologian;  Professor  of  Christian 
Ethics  at  Union  Theological  Seminary,  N.  Y.;  A.B., 


INDEX    OF  NAMES  525 

Princeton,  1879;  studied  at  Berlin  and  Gottingen,  1882 
83;  ordained  to  the  Presbyterian  Ministry,  1883;  pos- 
sessor of  the  "Order  of  the  Crown/'  third  class,  by  gift 
of  the  Kaiser.  Born,  Armagh,  Ireland,  1858 295,-96 

HAPGOOD,  NORMAN — A  distinguished  American  author  and 
litterateur;  was  editor  "Collier's  Weekly"  from  1903  to 
1912;  is  now  editor  of  "Harper's  Weekly."  Born,  Amer- 
ica, 1868  20 

HARDEN,  MAXIMILIAN — Editor  of  the  "Zukunft."  It  was  he 
who  in  1907  exposed  the  degeneracy  of  Count  Philip  zu 
Eulenberg,  sometime  German  Ambassador  at  Vienna  and 
an  intimate  friend  of  the  Kaiser;  "When  Harden  was 
proscribed  for  his  audacity  in  attacking  one  of  the  Em- 
peror's friends,  he  forced  the  prosecution  to  withdraw 
by  stating  that  he  had  enough  correspondence  in  his  pos- 
session to  ruin  the  reputation  of  the  members  of  the  Im- 
perial Family  and  half  the  officers  of  the  Imperial 
Guards."  (277)  Born,  Berlin,  1861 200-01,  270,  304 

HARMS,  BERNHARD — Professor  of  State  Science  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Kiel;  voluminous  writer  upon  social,  statistical 
and  industrial  problems!.  Born,  Hanover,  1876 477 

HARNACK,  ADOLF — Professor,  Theologian,  Philosopher,  Hono- 
rary Doctor  of  Laws  and  Medicine ;  prolific  writer.  Born, 
Dorpat,  1851  198,  244,  464 

HART,  ALBERT  BUSHNELL — Former  Professor  of  History,  now 
Professor  of  Government,  Harvard  University;  A.B.,  Har- 
vard, 1880;  Ph.D.,  Freiburg,  Baden,  1883;  editor  and 
author  of  many  historical  text-books  and  essays.  Born, 
Clarksville,  Pennsylvania,  1854 437 

HAUPTMANN,  GERHART — Poet ;  educated  in  the  Breslau  Kunst- 
ischule  and  later  at  the  Universities  of  Jena  and  Berlin. 
Born,  Germany,  1862 23,  68,  301 

HEARST,  WILLIAM  RANDOLPH — Newspaper  publisher;  owns,  or 
has  owned,  the  San  Francisco  "Examiner/'  the  New  York 
"Journal,"  the  New  York  "Morning  American,"  the  Chi- 
cago "American,"  the  Chicago  "Morning  Examiner,"  the 
Boston  "American,"  the  Los  Angeles  "Examiner";  ex- 
President  National  League  of  Democratic  Clubs.  Born, 
San  Francisco,  1863  425 

HENRY,  ALBERT  WILLIAM — Prince  of  Prussia;  brother  of  the 
Kaiser;  a  strong  advocate  of  the  increase  of  German  sea 


526  INDEX   OP  NAMES 

power;  sent  to  this  country  by  the  Kaiser  in  1902,  on 
the  occasion  of  the  launching  of  a  yacht  built  here  for  the 
latter.  Born,  Potsdam,  1862  141,  164 

HEXAMER,  CHARLES  JOHN — Civil  Engineer  and  insurance 
agent;  B.S.,  University  of  Pennsylvania,  1882,  A.M., 
1884;  decorated  by  Emperor  of  Germany  with  Order  of 
Red  Eagle  "for  services  in  diffusing  German  culture  in 
America."  Born,  Philadelphia,  1862  176,  227,  245 

HIBBEN,  JOHN  GRIER — President  of  Princeton  University ;  min- 
ister of  the  Presbyterian  Church;  author  of  treatises  on 
Logic  and  Philosophy.  Born,  Peoria,  111.,  1861 244 

HILPRECHT,  HERMAN  VOLRATH — Was  Professor  of  Assyriology 
and  Curator  of  the  Semitic  Section  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  1886-1911.  Born  in  Germany,  1859.35,  250,  251 

HITCHCOCK,  GILBERT — United  States  Senator  from  Nebraska; 
Educated  in  public  schools  and  in  Germany.  Born, 
Omaha,  1859 ...  432 

HOLLEBEN,  DR.  THEODORE  VON — Envoy  and  Minister  to  vari 
ous  countries,  including  the  United  States.  Born,  Stet- 
tin, Germany,  1838  164,  166 

HOWE,  HENRY  M. — Professor  of  Metallurgy,  Columbia  Uni- 
versity; gold  medallist  in  various  countries.  Born, 
Boston,  1848  345 

HOWELLS,  WILLIAM  DEAN — One  of  the  most  admired  and  re- 
spected of  living  American  authors;  formerly  editor  of 
"The  Atlantic  Monthly;"  now  writer  of  "Editor's  Easy 
Chair,"  Harper's;  ex- President  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Arts  and  Letters;  ex-United  States  Consul  to  Venice. 
Born,  Martin  Ferry,  Ohio,  1837 53,  133,  416 

JAGEMANN,  HANS  CARL  GUNTHER — Professor  of  Germanic 
Philology,  Harvard;  educated  at  Universities  of  Leipzig 
and  Tubingen;  Ph.D.,  Johns  Hopkins,  1884.  Born, 
Germany,  1859 35 

JAGOW,  GOTTLIEB  VON — German  Secretary  of  State  for  For- 
eign Affairs.  Born,  Berlin,  1863 310,  394 

JASTROW,  MORRIS,  JR. — Born  in  Poland,  1861.  Professor  of 
Semitic  Languages  and  Librarian,  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania; A.B.,  University  of  Pennsylvania,  1881;  Ph.D., 
University  of  Leipzig,  1884....  18,  32,  90,  238-42,  282-83,  306 

JORDAN,  DAVID  STARR — Biologist ;  University  Professor ;  Presi- 


INDEX    OF  NAMES  527 

dent   of   Leland   Stanford,    Jr.,   University   since    1891. 
Born,  Gainesville,  New  York,  1851   120 

JUNGE,  FRANZ — Engineer;  Ph.D.  of  Erlanger;  student  of 
philosophy  and  political  science  at  the  Universities  of 
Berlin  and  Heidelberg;  he  is  in  this-  country  partly  "to 
negotiate  with  the  United  States  Navy  Department  for 
the  equipment  of  American  submarines  with  German  oil- 
engines of  a  new  type"  160 

KIRBACH,  HUGO — Recording  Secretary  of  the  "German  Uni- 
versity League,"  New  York 220 

KITCHENER  OF  KHARTUM,  VISCOUNT  HORATIO  HERBERT — Brit- 
ish Secretary  of  State  for  War;  educated  at  Royal  Mili- 
tary Academy,  Woolwich;  entered  Royal  Engineers,  1871; 
commander  in  chief  on  many  important  occasions,  e.  g., 
the  Dongola  Expeditionary  Force,  1896;  Khartum  Expe- 
dition, 1898;  South  Africa,  1900;  India,  1902-09,  etc. 
Born,  County  Kerry,  Ireland,  1850  450,  478 

KLAUSSMANN,  ANTON  OSKAR — Writer  under  many  pseu- 
donyms. Born,  Breslau,  1851  202 

LA  FOLLETTE,  ROBERT  MARION — United  States  Senator  from 
Wisconsin,  ,term  expires  1917;  ex-Governor  of  Wisconsin. 
Born,  Wisconsin,  1855  441 

LAMPRECHT,    PROFESSOR   KARL   G — Political   Economist  and 

Historian.    Born,  Germany,  1856  198 

LANG,  WILLIAM  ROBERT — Professor  of  Chemistry,  University 
of  Toronto;  B.Sc.,  University  of  Glasgow;  author  of  vari- 
ous papers  on  chemical  subjects 240 

LANGE,    FRIEDRICH— Author,   Editor,   Doctor   of   Philosophy. 

Born,  Germany,  1852 37 

LANKESTER,  SIR  EDWIN  RAY — Emeritus  Professor  of  Zoology 
and  Comparative  Anatomy  in  the  University  of  London; 
voluminous  and  effective  writer  upon  biological  subjects; 
honorary  member  of  numerous  learned  societies  in  all 
parts  of  the  world.  Born,  England,  1847 330 

LARKIN,  JAMES — Irish  socialist  and  labor  leader;  was  leader 
of  the  Dublin  strike,  1913-14;  is  a  social  revolutionist; 
has  spent  most  of  his  efforts  trying  to  organize  the 
unskilled;  now  lecturing  in  United  States,  sometimes 
to  socialists  and  at  other  times  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Clan-Na-Gael ,  •  190-91 


528  INDEX   OF  NAMES 

LASSON,  PROFESSOR  ADOLF — Doctor  of  Theology,  Laws,  Let- 
ters; Privy  Councillor;  Honorary  Professor  of  Phil- 
osophy, University  of  Berlin.  Born,  Germany,  1832.... 

44,  96,  199,  229,  306,  307 

LEACOCK,  STEPHEN  BUTLER — Author,  Lecturer  and  Humorist; 
educated  at  University  of  Toronto;  Ph.D.,  University  of 
Chicago.  Born,  Hants,  England,  1869 59 

LENARD,  PHILIPP — Professor  of  Physics,  University  of  Heidel- 
berg. Born,  Pozsony,  1862 51,  200,  309 

LENTZ,  JOHN  JACOB — Lawyer;  was  appointed  trustee  of  Ohio 
University  by  Governor  McKinley;  member  of  'Congress,     . . 
1897-1901,  Twelfth  Ohio  District,  Democrat;   prominent 
as   advocate  of  armed  intervention  in  Cuba  in  debates 
preceding  war  of  1898.    Born,  Ohio,  1856 165 

LEON,  MAURICE — Lawyer,  Writer;  educated  in  Paris  and  New 
York  by  stepfather,  Prof.  J.  H.  Gottheil,  of  Columbia 
University;  admitted  to  New  York  Bar,  February,  1903. 
Born,  Beirut,  Syria,  1880'  204,  206,  215-16 

LEYEN,  PROF.  ALFRED  VON — University  of  Berlin;  well-known 
authority  on  engineering,  and  on  railway  management 
and  railway  policy;  author  of  "Financial  and  Traffic  Poli- 
cies of  the  Railways  of  North  America."  Born,  Ger- 
many, 1844 43 

LEZIUS,    PROFESSOR    FRIEDRICH,    of    Konigsberg — Theologian. 

Born,  Livonia,  1859 38 

LICHNOWSKY,  PRINCE  KARL  MAX — German  Ambassador  at 
London,  1914.  Born,  Germany,  1860  

LISSAUER,  ERNST — Author  of  "Hassgesang  gegen  England" — 
the  "Chant  of  Hate."  The  following  interesting  history  of 
this  now  celebrated  song  is  given  by  Archibald  Hender- 
son: (278)  "In  anticipation  of  a  coming  fierce  conflict 
with  a  division  of  the  British  army,  the  Crown  Prince 
Rupprecht  of  Bavaria  issued  to  his  troops  two  army 
orders,  'calling  upon  them  to  fight  with  especial  bitter- 
ness and  force  against  the  English  troops'  (these  army 
orders  were  cited  by  the  'Easier  Nach  rich  ten/  one  of  the 
leading  German  newspapers  of  Switzerland).  The  spirit 
of  these  army  orders  made  such  a  profound  and  moving 
impression  upon  Ernst  Lissauer,  a  trooper  in  the  Tenth 
Regiment  of  Bavarian  Infantry,  that  he  was  inspired  to 


INDEX   OF   NAMES  529 

write  his  flaming  protest  as  an  expression  of  the  deepest 
popular  feeling.  (Cf.  Politische  Beilage  der  Leipziger 
Neuesten  Nadir ich ten,  Nr.  310,  2,  Beilage,  November  9, 
1914.)  Realizing  the  tremendous  stimulative  Value  of 
the  poem  as  a  war- song,  Crown  Prince  Ruppreeht  pur- 
sued the  striking  course  of  issuing  the  'Hassgesang  gegen 
England'  as  a  special  army  order  to  his  troops." 307 

LOBECK,  CHARLES  0. — Congressman,  Nebraska;  educated  at 
the  Baldwin  Wallace  College,  Berea,  Ohio;  Business  Col- 
lege of  Chicago;  commercial  traveller,  etc.  Born,  Illinois, 
1852  204,  206,  245 

LODGE,  HENRY  CABOT — United  States,  Senator  from  Massachu- 
setts since  1893;  editor;  author;  historian.  An  Over- 
seer of  Harvard  since  1911.  Born,  Boston,  1850.... 407,  412 

LONDON,  JACK — Author;  journalist;  lecturer;  war- correspon- 
dent Russo- Japanese  War.  Born,  San  Francisco,  1876. ..  133 

LOVEJOY,  ARTHUR  0. — Professor  of  Philosophy,  Johns  Hop- 
kins University;  A.B.,  University  of  California,  1895; 
A.M.,  Harvard,  1897,  University  of  Paris,  1899.  Born, 
Berlin,  Germany,  1873 242,  251-253 

LOWELL,  ABBOTT  LAWRENCE — President  of  Harvard  Univer- 
sity; author  of  "Essays  on  Government,"  "The  Govern- 
ment of  England,"  etc.  Born,  Boston,  1856 153 

LUETWITZ,    BARON   VON — General   commanding   a  district   of 

Belgium  during  the  fall  and  winter  of  1914 103 

MACDONALD,  JAMES  RAMSAY — M.  P.  (Labor)  for  Leicester, 
since  1906;  leader  of  the  Labor  Party,  1911;  author  of 
"Socialism  and  Society,"  "Socialism  and  Government," 
etc.  Born,  Lossiemouth,  Scotland,  1866  181 

MCELROY,  ROBERT  N. — Professor  of  American  History, 
Princeton  University;  studied  at  Leipzig,  Berlin  and 
Oxford.  Born,  Kentucky,  1872  141 

MACH,  DR.  EDMUND  VON — Lecturer;  Editor;  Writer  on 
Painting  and  Sculpture  and  on  their  history;  served  in 
Germany  Army,  1889-91;  came  to  America,  1891;  A.M., 
Harvard,  1896,  Ph.D.,  1900.  Born,  Pomerania,  1970... 

35,  109,  168,  245,  281 

MARTIN,  EDWARD  SANDFORD — Author  and  Essayist;  A.B.,  Har- 
vard, 1877;  member  of  Bar,  Rochester,  N.  Y.;  editor  of 

"Life."     Born,  Willowbrook,  N.  Y.,   1856,   

159,  174,  184,  352,  354,  355,  409 
34 


530  INDEX   OF  NAMES 

MARTIN,  RUDOLF  EMIL — Ex-Minister  of  the  Interior;  author 
of  many  works  on  economic  and  industrial  subjects; 
also  of  "Kaiser  Wilhelm  II  und  Konig  Eduard  VII." 
"Germany's  Future"  (1908),  etc.  Born,  Saxony,  1867.27,  304 

MATTHEWS,  BRANDER — Author;  Professor  of  Dramatic  Litera- 
ture, Columbia  University;  A.B.,  Columbia,  1871; 
Litt.D.,  Yale,  1901;  LL.D.,  Columbia,  1904.  Born,  New 
Orleans,  1852  313 

MENCKEN,  HENRY  Louis — Journalist;  Critic;  and  Editor; 
author,  after  many  years  of  careful  study,  of  "The  Phil- 
osophy of  Friedrich  Nietzsche/'  "The  Gist  of  Nietsche," 
etc.  Born,  Baltimore,  1880  140 

MERCIER,  CHARLES  ARTHUR — Noted  psychiatrist;  examiner  in 
mental  diseases  at  the  London  University;  author  of 
"Text-book  of  Insanity,"  "Criminal  Responsibility,"  etc. 
Born,  England,  1852  330 

METER,  EDUARD — Professor  of  History,  University  of  Berlin; 
formerly  an  Exchange  Professor  at  Harvard  (1909); 
author  of  many  historical  works;.  Born,  Hamburg,  1855  240 

MEYER,  KUNO  E. — Professor  of  the  Celtic  Language  and 
Literature  at  the  University  of  Berlin;  formerly  of 
Liverpool  and  of  Dublin.  Born,  Hamburg,  1858  191-92 

MOLTKE,  HELMUTH  JOHANNES  LUDWIG  VON — Recently  Chief 

of  the  German  General  Staff.  Born,  Germany,  1848 73 

MORGAN,  JOHN  HARTMAN — Professor  of  Constitutional  Law 
at  University  College,  London,  since  1908;  educated  at 
Oxford  and  Berlin;  has  been  on  literary  staff  of  "The 
Daily  Chronicle"  and  leader  writer  for  "The  Manchester 
Guardian;"  author  of  many  books  on  constitutional  law. 
Born,  Wales,  1876  I22 

MUIRHEAD,  JAMES  FUIXARTON — Editor  and* Author;  the  com- 
piler of  Baedecker's  "United  States,"  "Great  Britain," 
etc.,  and  the  editor  of  many  of  the  English  editions  of 
Baedeker's  hand-books;  author  of  "The  House  of  Baed- 
eker," "Baedeker  in  the  Making,"  "America,  the  Land  of 
Contrasts."  Born,  Glasgow,  1853  .  .*. 337-40 

MUMM,  DR.  A.  VON — Charge*  d'Affaires  at  the  German  Em- 
bassy in  Washington,  1891  164 

MUNSTERBERG,  HUGO — Professor  of  Psychology  and  Director 
of  the  Psychological  Laboratory  at  Harvard  University; 


INDEX    OF   NAMES  531 

Harvard  Exchange  Professor  at  Berlin,  191(M1.  Born, 
Dantzig,  Germany,  1863..  17,  174,  181-86,  198,  254,  281, 

302,  305,  306,  359-60,  375 

NAUMANN,  FBIEDRICH,  D.D. — Editor  of  "Hilfe,"  Berlin;  volu- 
minous writer.  Born,  Stormthal,  I860' 200,  309 

NEWBOLD,  CLEMENT  B. — Banker,  Philadelphia 426 

NIEBER,  LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  STEPHEN  VON — Born,  Germany, 

1855  102 

OBERHOLTZER,  ELLIS  PAXSON — Author;  editor;  journalist; 
educated  at  University  of  Pennsylvania  and  German  uni- 
versities; was  a  student  of  Von  Treitschke  years  ago  in 
Berlin;  a  newspaper  correspondent  there  while  he  at- 
tended the  German  universities;  wrote  and  published  in 
German  a  work  on  the  relations  existing  between  the 
Government  and  the  newspaper  press  in  Germany.  Born, 
Philadelphia,  1868 148-54 

OSTWALD,  DB.  WILHELM — Chemist;  Professor  University  of 

of  Leipzig;  Nobel  Prize  winner 45,  243,  361 

PARMELEE,  MAURICE — Sociologist;  Assistant  Professor  of 
Sociology,  University  of  Missouri;  A.B.,  Yale,  1904; 
Ph.D.,  Columbia,  1909;  author  of  "The  Principles  of 
Anthropology  and  Sociology  in  their  Relations  to  Crim- 
inal Procedure."  Born,  Constantinople,  Turkey,  1882 . .  465 

PAULSEN,  FRIEDRICH — Professor  of  Philosophy  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Berlin  279-80 

PENNYPACKER,  SAMUEL  WHITAKER — Ex-Judge  of  Common 
Pleas,  Philadelphia;  ex-Governor  of  Pennsylvania;  Trus- 
tee of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania;  voluminous  writer 
on  legal  and  historical  subjects;  the  allusion  in  the  text 
is  based  on  a  speech  of  Governor  Pennypacker's  at  a  meet- 
ing of  a  German  society,  in  which  he  is  reported  to 
have^  said  that  Belgium  was  to  blame  for  what  happened 
to  her  and  compared  her  to  a  man;  who  "to  assert  his 
right  to  the  highway"  stands  in  the  middle  of  the  street, 
"directly  in  the  route  of  the  automobile" !  Born,  Phcenix- 
ville,  Pa.,  1843  228,  270 

PORTER,  STEPHEN  GEYER — Republican  Congressman  from 
Pittsburgh,  Pa.;  member  of  the  Allegheny  Bar.  Born, 
Ohio,  1869 245 

POWELL,  E.  ALEXANDER — Author;  editor;  journalist;  war  cor- 
respondent; has  been  in  the  diplomatic  service;  charge 


532  INDEX   OF  NAMES 

d'affaires  at  Alexandria,  Egypt,  1907-08;  as  magazine 
writer  and  special  correspondent  was  in  Persian  and 
Turkish  revolutions;  in  Central  Asia,  1909;  Mexico, 
1910;  Arabia  and  Central  Africa,  1910-11;  Balkans, 
1912;  Mexican  revolution,  1913;  author  of  "The  Last 
Frontier,"  "Gentlemen  Rovers,"  "The  End  of  the  Trail." 
Born,  Syracuse.  1ST.  Y.,  1879 109 

POWYS,  JOHN  COWPER — M.A.,  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford 
(honors  in  History,  1893)  ;  staff  lecturer  on  literature 
for  Oxford  University  Extension  Delegacy;  of  the  Edu- 
cation Department  Free  City  of  Hamburg;  University 
lecturers'  Association,  New  York;  lecturer  on  "The  His- 
tory of  Liberty,"  a  course  beginning  with  "The  Athenian 
Republic"  and  ending  with  "The  Republic  of  the  Future"; 
also  lectures  on  "Representative  American  Writers/'  etc. 

23,  69,  185,  254,  352,  356,  359 

PBINCE,  DB.  MORTON — Physician;  distinguished  psychiatrist; 
A.B.,  Harvard,  1875,  M.D.,  1879;  Professor  of  Nervous 
Diseases,  Tufts  College  Medical  School;  author  of 
"Nature  of  Mind  and  Human  Automatism,"  "Dissocia- 
tion of  a  Personality,"  etc.  Born,  Boston,  1854.  ..108-13,  281 

PUTNAM,  GEORGE  HAVEN — Publisher,  Author;  ex-Union  sol- 
dier; President,  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York.  Born, 
London,  1844 218,  238-39 

RAMSAY,  SIR  WILLIAM — Professor  of  Chemistry,  University 
College,  London,  1887-1913;  now  Professor  Emeritus;  re- 
cipient of  degrees  from  and  honorary  membership  in 
many  the  learned  societies  of  the  world;  author  of 
"Argon,  a  New  Constituent  of  the  Atmosphere"  (in  con- 
junction with  Lord  Rayleigh),  "Nelium,  a  Constituent  of 
Certain  Minerals,"  "Neon,  Krypton  and  Xenon,  three  New 
Atmospheric  Gases."  Born,  Glasgow,  1852  313,  317 

REPPLIER,  AGNES — One  of  the  best  known  and  most  brilliant 
of  American  essayists;  Litt.D.  (Hon.),  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  1902.  Born,  Philadelphia,  1857.41,  248,  257-63 

REVENTLOW,  COUNT  ERNST  zu — Naval  Writer;  author  of 
works  on  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  the  German  Navy, 
England's  Sea-power,  World  Peace  or  World  War,  etc. 
Born,  Germany,  1867  392,  396,  400,  424,  464 

RHINELANDER,     PHILIP     MERCER — Bishop    of     Pennsylvania; 

A.B.,  Harvard,  1891.     Born,  Newport,  R.  I.,  1869 237 


INDEX   OF  NAMES  533 

BIDDER,  HERMAN — Journalist;  established  "Katholisches 
Volksblatt,"  1878;  "Catholic  News,,"  1886;  became  trus- 
tee, treasurer  and  manager  of  New  York  "Staats- 
Zeitung"  in  1890  and  President  in  1907.  Born,  New  York 
1851,  of  German  parents 17,  214-15,  245-46,  302 

ROHRBACH,  DR.  PAUL — Author,  and  Specialist  on  Colonial  Ad- 
ministration, etc.  Born,  Livonia,  1869  292 

ROLLAND,  ROMAIC — Author,  Man  of  Letters;  ex-Professor  of 
the  History  of  Art  at  PEcole  Normale  Superieure;  in- 
augurated the  teaching  of  the  History  of  Music  at  the 
Sorbonne;,  one  of  the  directors  of  1'Ecole  des  Hautes 
Etudes  Sociales.  Born,  Clamecy,  1866  68 

ROOSEVELT,  THEODORE — Twenty-sixth  President  of  the  United 
States;  elected  Vice- President  for  term  1901-05;  suc- 
ceeded to  Presidency  on  death  of  William  McKinley,  Sep- 
tember 14,  1901;  elected  President,  November  8,  1904,  by 
the  largest  popular  majority  ever  accorded  a  candidate; 
author,  soldier,  hunter,  traveller,  explorer,  reformer, 
statesman  and  patriot;  regarded  by  millions  at  home  and 
abroad  as  better  typifying  American  ideals  than  any 
other  living  individual : 33,  130,  346,  419-20,  484 

SAROLEA,  CHARLES,  D.Ph.,  F.R.S.— Editor  of  "Everyman"; 
head  of  the  French  Department,  University  of  Edinburgh 

141,  169 

SAYCE,  REV.  ARCHIBALD  HENRY — Professor  of  Assyriology, 
Oxford  University,  since  1891 ;  author  of  numerous  works 
on  Comparative  Philology  and  on  Oriental  Languages, 
Literature  and  History.  Born,  England,  1846 329 

SCHARFENORT,  Louis  A.  VON — Retired  Captain,  ex-Librarian 
of  the  Royal  Military  Academy;  now  a  Berlin  Profesr 
sor.  Born,  East  Prussia,  1855  104 

SCHLETTWEIN,  CARL  AUGUST — Owner  of  lands  in  German 
Southwest  Africa;  writer  on  colonial  politics  and 
policies.  Born,  Germany,  1866 159 

SCHMOLLER,    PROFESSOR    GUSTAVB  VON — Political    Economist 

and  voluminous  writer.    Born,  Germany,  1838 

198,   355,   356,   464 

SHAW,  BERNARD — Author;  playwright;  wit.  As  a  controver- 
sialist his  aim  often  is  to  attract  attention  and  excite 
surprise  by  the  use  of  the  unexpected  and  the  paradox- 
ical, without  regard  for  the  seriousness  of  the  subject. 


534  INDEX   OF  NAMES 

For  this  reason,  in  this  country  at  least,  his  articles  on. 
the  war  have  not  received  the  notice  or  had  the  effect  to 
which,  by  reason  of  his  intellectual  acumen  they  might 
otherwise  have  been  entitled.  Born,  Dublin,  1856 331 

SHEPHEARD,  WILLIAM  R— Historian;  Professor  of  History 

in  Columbia  University.  Born,  Charleston,  S.  C.,  1871..  245 

SIGSBEE,  REAR-ADMIRAL  CHARLES  DWIGHT,  U.  S.  N. — Com- 
manded the  Maine  until  she  was  blown  up  in  Havana 
harbor,  1898;  commanded  the  St.  Paul  during  Spanish- 
American  War;  was  advanced  three  numbers  in  rank 
"for  extraordinary  heroism."  Born,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  1845  395 

SIMONDS,  FRANK  H. — Journalist;  A.B.  Harvard;  served  in 
Spanish- American  War;  has  been  connected  with  the 
New  York  "Tribune,"  the  Albany  "Courier,"  the  New 
York  "Evening  Post"  and  the  New  York  "Evening  Sun." 
Born,  Concord,  Mass.,  1878 474,  478 

SLOANE,  WILLIAM  MILLIGAN — Professor  of  History,  Colum- 
bia University;  formerly  professor  at  Princeton;  secre- 
tary to  George  Bancroft  in  Berlin,  1873-75;  author  of 
"Napoleon  Bonaparte."  Born,  Ohio,  1850 270 

STEIN,  DOCTOR  LUDWIG — Professor  of  Philosophy  at  Berlin; 
author  of  "Leibnitz  and  Spinoza,"  "Friedrich  Nietzsche," 
systematic  treatises  on  philosophy,  etc.;  editor  of  various 
philosophical  journals  and  of  the  Jewish  paper,  "Nord 
und  Slid."  Born,  Hungary,  1859  26,  424 

STERNBURG.  BARON  HERMANN  SPECK  VON — Ex-Ambassador 
from  Germany  to  the  United  States  (1903);  fought  in 
Franco-German  War;  has  been  First  Secretary  of  Lega- 
tion at  Peking;  Consul-General  in  British  India;  member 
of  Samoan  Commission;  Charge  d 'Affaires  at  Belgrade, 
etc.  Born,  Leeds,  England,  1852  165 

SUDERMANN,  HERMANN — Author  and  prolific  writer.  Born, 

East  Prussia,  1857  199 

TAFT,  WILLIAM  H. — Twenty-seventh  President  of  the  United 
States,  1909-1913;  was  defeated  as  a  candidate  for  re- 
election November,  1912,  receiving  only  the  electoral 
votes  of  Vermont  and  Utah,  8  out  of  531 94 

THOMPSON,  VANCE — Author  and  playwright;  A.B.  Prince- 
ton, 1888.  Born,  1863  325 

TIRPITZ,  ALFRED  P.  F.  VON — Admiral  of  the  German  Navy; 


INDEX   OF   NAMES  535 

was  made  Admiral  in  1903;  "Gross-Admiral,"  1911. 
Born,  Germany,  1849 223 

TODD,  M.  HAMPTON — Lawyer;  Ex- Attorney  General  of  Penn- 
sylvania; Hon.  A.M.,  1900;  LL.D.,  1907,  Washington 
and  Jefferson  College.  Born,  Philadelphia,  1845 237 

TREVELYAN,  RT.  HON.  SIR  GEORGE  OTTO,  BART — Educated  at 
Harrow  and  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  scholar  and 
Hon.  Fellow  of  Trinity  College;  has  been  a  mem- 
ber of  various  Liberal  governments;  nephew  of  Lord 
Macauley;  author  of  "Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Mac- 
auley,"  "Early  History  of  Charles  James  Fox,"  "George 
III  and  Charles  Fox"  and  "The  American  Revolution." 
Born,  Leicestershire,  1838  180 

TROWBRIDGE,  JOHN — Rumford  Professor  of  Applied  Science, 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology;  distinguished 
physicist;  President  American  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences.  Born,  Boston,  1843 318-19 

TURNER,  HERBERT  HALL — Professor  of  Astronomy,  Oxford 
University,  since  1893;  Fellow  New  College  Oxford;  for- 
merly Fellow  Trinity  College,  Cambridge;  President 
Royal  Astronomical  Society,  1903-4;  author  of  "Modern 
Astronomy,"  etc.  Born,  England,  1861 330 

VIERECK,  GEORGE  SYLVESTER — Author,  editor  and  playwright; 
now  editor  of  "The  Fatherland."  Born,  Munich,  Ger- 
many, 1844 207,  209-10,  245-46 

VILLARD,  OSWALD  GARRISON — A  grandson  of  William  Lloyd 
Garrison,  the  abolitionist;  A.B.,  Harvard,  1893;  edi- 
torial writer  and  President  "N.  Y.  Evening  Post."  Born, 
in  Wiesbaden,  Germany,  1872 26,  73 

VOLLMER,  HENRY — Congressman  from  Iowa;  lawyer;  grad- 
uate of  Law  Department  of  State  University  of  Iowa. 
Born,  Iowa,  1867 204,  206,  245 

WALLING,  WILLIAM  ENGLISH — Author;  B.S.,  University  of 
Chicago,  1897;  wrote  "Russia's  Message,"  1908.  Born, 
Louisville,  1877  466 

WASHBURN,  STANLEY — Journalist  and  war  correspondent; 
explorer  and  seasoned  campaigner;  an  eye-witness  in 
the  Russo-Japanese  war  and  in  the  present  war;  an 
authority  upon  the  Canadian  Northwest;  the  author  of 
a  "Life  of  General  Nogi";  a  son  of  the  late  Senator 
Washburn,  of  Minnesota  334 


536  INDEX   OF  NAMES 

WEBER,   LEONHABD — Professor  of  Physic®  in  the  University 

of  Kiel.     Born,  Germany,  1848 75 

WEEKS,  RAYMOND — Professor  of  Romance  Languages,  Co* 
lurnbia  University;  author  of  many  philological  articles. 
Born,  Iowa,  1863 104 

W^EIMER,  ALBERT  B. — Lawyer;  author;  A.B.,  Harvard,  1880; 
admitted  to  Bar  of  Philadelphia,  1882;  author  of  "Rail- 
road Law  of  Pennsylvania,"  1894;  '''Corporation  Law  of 
Pennsylvania,"  1897,  etc.  Born,  Philadelphia,  1857 460 

WELLS,    HERBERT    GEORGE — Novelist;    Socialist;    voluminous 

writer;  original  thinker.     Born,  Kent,  England,  1866...    139 

WELSH,  HERBERT — Publicist;  A.B.,  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, 1871;  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Indian 
Rights  Association;  prominent  as  an  advocate  of  peace 
and  of  international  arbitration.  Born,  Philadelphia, 
1871 298 

WHARTON,    EDITH — Novelist   and   story-writer.      Born,    New     • 
York,  1862 133 

WHELPLEY,  JAMES  DAVENPORT — Author;  traveler;  editor;  war 
correspondent;  editor  San  Antonio  (Texas)  "Express," 
1894-7;  staff  correspondent  Spanish-American  war;  sent 
abroad  on  special  mission,  by  United  States  govern- 
ment on  eleven  different  occasions  (1900-12),  visiting 
almost  every  country  in  the  world;  author  of  "The 
Nation  as  a  Land  Owner,"  "The  Problem  of  the  Emi- 
grant," "The  Trade  of  the  World,"  etc.  Born,  Boston, 
1863  332,  429 

WHITE,  HORACE — Editor,  author,  and  journalist;  for  many 
years  editor  of  the  Chicago  "Tribune,"  and  for  twenty 
years  (1883-1903)  was  connected  with  the  New  York 
"Evening  Post,"  much  of  the  time  as  'President  of  the 
company,  editorial  writer  and  Editor-in-Chief.  Born, 
Colebrook,  N.  H.,  1834 210 

WILCOX,  ELLA  WHEELER — Author;  editorial  writer;  poet- 
ess; educated  at  University  of  Wisconsin.  Bora,  Wis- 
consin, 1855 133 

WILE,  FREDERICK  WILLIAM — For  over  seven  years  the  chief 
correspondent  of  the  London  "Daily  Mail,"  in  Germany, 
and  the  Berlin  correspondent  of  the  New  York  "Times" 
and  the  Chicago  "Tribune;"  his  acquaintance  with  Ger- 
man affairs  is  intimate;  he  is  the  author  of  "The  Men 


INDEX    OF   NAMES  537 

Around  the  Kaiser,"  an  interesting  account  of  some  of 
the  makers  of  modern  Germany 462-65 

WILHBLM  II,  THE  GERMAN  KAISER — Educated  at  the  Uni- 
versities of  Bonn  and  Cassel;  grandson  of  the  late  Queen 
Victoria  of  England,  and  nephew  of  the  late  King  Ed- 
ward VII;  succeeded  his  father  as  King  of  Prussia 
and  German  Emperor  in  1888;  married,  1881,  the  Prin- 
cess Augusta  Victoria,  duchess  of  Schleswig-Holstein. 
Born,  Berlin,  1959 52-59 

WILSON,  THOMAS  WOODROW — The  twenty-eighth  President  of 
the  United  States;  Ex-Governor  of  New  Jersey;  Ex- 
President  of  Princeton  University;  elected  President, 
November,  1912,  with  a  popular  vote  of  6,293,000,  the 
combined  votes  of  the  other  two  candidates  being  7,- 
603,000.. 247,  364,  375,  400,  407,  412,  414,  420,  422, 

425,  433,  438 

WINSOR,  WILLIAM  D. — A  representative  and  esteemed  ship 
owner  of  Philadelphia;  a  manager  of  the  Western  Sav- 
ing Fund  Society 411-12 

WINTZER,  WILHELM  JOHANNES — Author  of  "The  Germans  in 
Middle  and  South  America,  Australia,  Etc.,"  "The  Ger- 
mans in  Tropical  America."  Born,  Nauendorf,  Germany, 
1867  354,  356 

WITTE,  EMIL— Ex-Editor  of  the  "Deutsche  Zeitung,"  of 
Vienna;  Ex-Press  attache"  at  the  German  Embassy  in 
Washington  .' 163 

WORKS,  JOHN — United  States  Senator  from  California. 

Born,  Indiana,  1847 432 

WUNDT,  PROFESSOR  WILHELM  M. — A  distinguished  physiol- 
ogist and  psychologist.  Born,  Germany,  1832 244 


GENERAL  INDEX 


Administration,  present  in  U.  S. 
See  United  States,  Wilson, 
State  Department. 

Adriatic,  establishment  of  Ger- 
many on  the,  473 

Aerschot,  atrocities  committed  in, 
110 

Aim,  of  civilized  countries  in  fu- 
ture, 495  et  seq. 

Albert,  of  Belgium,  86  et  seq. 

—  Quoted,   276 

—  Tributes  to,  130  to  134 
Albert   of   Belgium,    abuse   of,    by 

Germany,  87 

—  Democracy  of,  88 

Aliens,    naturalization    in    U.    S., 

208 
Alliance,    ideal,     of    democracies, 

366  et  seq. 
Allies,   American  supply   of   arms 

to,  211 

—  American    sympathy    for,    289, 

341  et  seq.}  426,  428,  503 

—  Attempts      of       Germany      to 

foster   American   resentment 
toward,  213 

—  Fighting  battle   of  democratic 

civilization,    362,    382,    384, 
415,   502 

—  Help     of     America     necessary 

to,  485 

—  Motive  of,  360 

— •  Desire  of  Americans  for  of- 
ficial expression  of  sym- 
pathy with,  376  et  seq. 

—  Resistance  of  IT.  S.  A.  to  rights 

of,     in     searching    German- 
American   ships,    416 

—  Sooner    or    later    to    be    sup- 

ported by   Italy,   472 

—  Victory  of,  hoped  for,  353 

—  What   U.   S.   could   do   in   aid- 

ing,  487 

Alsace-Lorraine,  28,  357,  479,  490 

Ambition,   German,   147 

America.     See  United  States. 

American,  attitude  of  average,  to- 
ward German  propaganda, 
244 

—  Flag,  alleged  misuse  of,  395 

—  "Impudence,"   218 

—  Mind,    183,   186 

—  Neutrality   League,   236 

—  Policy,    mistaken,    161 

—  Society     for     informing     Ger- 

many, 27 

"American  Irritation  at  German 
Apologists,"  238 


Americans,  discontent  of  over  at- 
titude of  U.  S.,  364,  431  et 
passim 

—  From    German    viewpoint,   421 

—  Humiliated      by      position      of 

Government,  365 

—  In  relation  to  war,  359 
"America's  Duty  and  the  Rules  of 

War,"  442 
"America's    Duty    in    Relation    to 

the  European  War,"  343 
"America's  Silence,"  422 
Ammunition,  German,  462 
Anarchists,    philosophical,    359 
Anarchy  in  Mexico,  363 

—  Precipitation   of   this   war   as, 

367 

Anglomaniacs,   382 
Anglo-Saxon  ideas,  360 
Annexations,  by  Germany,  34 
Anti-British    campaign    in    Ameri- 
ca, 172,  179,  193,  224 
Anti-British  feeling,  216,  383,  431 
Anti-Japanese  legislation  223 
Anti-military    agitation,     cleverly 
managed  by  Vorwaerts,  468 
Anti-Socialist   press,    German,    in- 
dignation of,  469 
Antwerp,   to  belong   to   Germany, 

24 

Apologists,  German,  credibility  of, 
289 

—  Misstatements   of,   250  et  seq. 

—  Versus  the  truth,   285  et  seq., 

293  et  seq.  See  also  Ger- 
man-Americans, Propaganda, 
German 

Appeal   for  "fairness,"   33 

Arabia,  part  of,  to  go  to  Rumania, 
28 

Archives,  Belgian,  276 

Armies,  cost  of,  452 

Arms  and  munitions  of  war.  See 
Munitions. 

Army,  German,  seat  of  monarch's 
power,  151 

Art,  respect  of  civilization  for, 
316 

"Aryan"  episode,  412 

Atrocities,  German,  99  et  seq.. 
104,  470,  501 

—  Surgical    possibility   of,    106 
Austria,     46,     367,     479,     491     et 

passim 

—  At  close  of  war,  28 

—  Attitude  toward  Servia,  261 
— •  Demand  of,  upon  Servia,   472, 

490 


(539) 


540 


GENERAL  INDEX 


—  Dream    of    controlling    Servia, 

135 

—  Judgment  of  Court  of  Civiliza- 

tion concerning,  64 

—  Position    of    at    close    of    six 

months  of  war,  475 

—  Quarrel  of  Italy  with,  472 

—  Share  of  cost  at  end  of  war, 

28 
Austria-Italian        incompatibility, 

473 
Austro-Germans,  Italy's  offense  In 

not  following,   472 
Autocracy,  German,  147,  169,  178 

Bacon,  Robert,  440 
Balkan    States,   490 

—  Ambitions,  491 
Baltic  confederation,   361 
Baltic  provinces,  26,  27,  29,  362 
Band,  the  iron,  23 
Barbarians,  German,  320 
Barbarism,  German,  upheld,  42-3 

—  Relapses   into,    446.      See    also 

Atrocities 
Bartholdt,     204,     206,     207,     209, 

225,  435 
Basserman,   198 
Bavarian   army,   unfair  treatment 

of,  459,  460 
Begbie,   Harold,  429 
Belfort,    German    annexation    of, 

28 

Belgian  spirit,  88 
Belgians,  high  qualities  of,  76 

—  Sad  plight  of,  132 
Belgium,    alleged    agreements    of, 

with  France,  75,  263-276 

—  Ambition  of  France  for,   493 

—  As  foe  to  civilization,  439 

—  At  close  of  war,  24,  29 

—  At  peace,  491 

—  Attitude  of  Vorwaerts  toward 

invasion  of,  468 

—  Case  of,  supreme  issue  of  war, 

323 

—  Compensation  due  to,  387 

—  Condemnation  of  Germany  for 

treatment  of,  99   et  seq. 

—  "Crime"  of,  264 

— •  Crucified    for    saving    of    na- 
tions, 340 

—  Devastation  of,  220 

—  Division  of,   27 

—  Effect  of  U.   S.  refusal  to  sell 

munitions,   upon,  438 

—  Fighting   for  American  ideals, 

365 

—  German      "chivalry"      toward, 

272 

—  Germany's     criminal     position 

in  regard  to,  89 

—  Germany's  present  attitude  to- 

ward, 84  et  seq. 

—  Germany's    strategic    railways 
in,  262 

—  Good     name     of,     blasted     by 

Germany,  124 


—  Incorporated    in    German    Em- 

pire, 25 

—  Incorporated    in    German    Cus- 

toms Union,  25 

—  Invasion    of,     126,     392,     445, 

490  et  passim 

—  Neutrality   of,   25,   60  et  seq.t 

66,  126,   197,  200,  241,  300, 
338  ;   et  passim 

—  Neutrality  of,  inalienable  right 

to,   72 

—  Neutrality  of,  negligible,  90 

—  Neutrality     of,     obligation    of 

U.  S.  regarding,  444 

—  Not  responsible,   131 

—  Plans  to  invade  in   1906,   126, 

263-276 

— •  Prostrate    under    heel    of    in- 
vader, 490 

—  Relief  of,  322  et  seq. 

—  Report    on    German    outrages 

in,  388 

—  Representatives   of,    at    Wash- 

ington, 388 

—  Restoration  of,  455 

—  Sacrifice     of,     for     democratic 

ideals,  361 

—  Tribute     of     Gertrude     Ather- 

ton  to,  134 

—  Tribute  of  W.  D.  Howells,  133 

—  Tribute  of  Jack  London,  133 

—  Tribute  of  Edith  Wharton  to, 

—  Tribute  of  Ella   Wheeler   Wil- 

cox  to,   132,   133 

—  War  tax  levied  on,  324 

—  Violation  of  neutrality  of,   75 

et  seq.,  262  et  seq.,  423,  428 
"Belgium,      a     New      and     More 

Wicked  Assault  on,"  271 
Belligerent  States,  366 
Belligerents,      supplies     to,      205, 

207,  210  et  seq.,  434 
Bernhardi,    17,    18,    27,    29,    47, 
48,    49,    178,    198,    255,    464, 

492 

Bernstorff,  49,  194,  198,  398,  425 
Bethman-Hollweg,     92,     96,     264, 

275,  470,  472 
Bismarck,   53,   352,   403 
Black  Sea,  333 
Blockade,  396,  402  et  seq. 
Boer  War,  169 
Boers,  South  African,  25 
Brazil,   355,  409 
Breusing,  464 
Bright,   406 
Brussels,    notice    posted    at,    102, 

103 
Bryan,    Secretary,    227,    420,    425, 

436,   485 

Bryce,  Viscount,  20,  180,  255 
Buelow,   von,  diplomatist,   198 
Byron,  367 

Cables,   neutralization   of,   25 
Canada  and  the  Monroe  Doctrine, 
93,  311 

—  Coveted  by  U.   S.,   162 


GENERAL  INDEX 


541 


—  German  invasion  of,  72,  351 

—  Obligation"  of,  in  case  of  Bel- 

gium, 443 

Canadian  boundary   line,   384 
Capitalism,  mission  of,  158 
Caprivi,  403 

Carter,   Laura  Armistead,   380 
Casus  ~belli,  391 
Causes  of  war,  17,  135-137,  327 
Cavour,   357,   362,   363 
Chancellor,    German.       See    BetJi- 

mann-Hollweff 
Channel  coasts,  neutralization  of, 

25 
Chemists,   German  and   American, 

326 

Chichester,  Captain,  163,  180 
China,     German     possessions     in, 

357 

—  Invasion  of,  445 
Christianity,      effect     upon      Ger- 
mans, 315 

Civil    War,    396,    408,    412,    427, 

428,  477 

Civil  War  blockade,  406 
Civilization,   destruction  of  ideals 

of,  373 

—  Duty  of  citizen  in  relation  to, 

368 

—  No   nation  entitled   to  impose 

its  type  of,  47 

—  Supreme  Court  of,  60,  62,  64 

—  Verdict    of    jury    of,    concern- 

ing   violation    of    neutrality 
of  Belgium,  271 

—  German.     See  Culture 
Civilizations,   inferior,   328 
Civilized    countries,    what    should 

be  aim  of,  in  future,  495  et 

seq. 
Civilized     warfare,     violation     of 

rules  of,  446 
Citizenship,     American,     violation 

of,   230 

—  German,  205  et  seq.,  215,  230 

—  German-American,  208 
Clark,    Champ,   485,   487 
Clemenceau,   his  condemnation   of 

American   favoritism,    440 
Colonies,   British,      27 

—  Disposal  of  Allies,'  39 

—  German,   25,   351,   357,  475 

—  French,  29,   33,   34 
Colonization,    German,    principles 

of,   159 

Commerce,   American,    233 
Commercialism,    American,    442 
Confederation,     schemes    of    Pan- 

Germanists  for,  136 
Congo  Free  State,  27 
Contraband,     American     note     re- 
garding, 421 

—  Protests   of   exporters    of,    408 
Copper, '  lack  of,  in  Germany,  462 
Courses,  two,  open  to  U.  S.,  345 
Criticism    of    America's    behavior, 

431 


Crown   Prince   Frederick  William, 

54,   323,  463 
Cuba.    American    policy    in,    169, 

217 
Culpability,      Germany's,      Italian 

evidence  as  to,  70 
Culture,  German,  39,  46,  84,  148, 

263,    314    et   seq.,   327,    355, 

360      469,      484,      499;      of 

world,   312 
"Czarism,  War  Against,"  468 

Dacia    episode,    407    et   seq.,   413, 

416 

Dampierre,  Marquis  de,  116 
Danes,   pushed  back  by  Germans, 

456 

D'Annunzio,  470 
Dardanelles,    25,   333 
Davis,  Jefferson,  477 
"Deadlock,    gigantic,"    449 
Declaration       of        Independence, 

181,  368 

Declaration  of  London,  413 
Declaration  of  Paris,  396 
Democracies,     in     Federation     of 

Nations,  366 
Democracy,    Germany    as,    140   et 

seq. 

Democratic  liberty,   138  et  seq. 
Dernburg,  65  et  seq..  125  et  seq.. 

139,   205,    243,   254   et   seq,. 

289 
"Deutschland     fiber     Alles,"     32, 

238  et  seq.,  256,  282  et  seq., 

"Deutschland   unter  den  Weltvol- 

kern,"  292 
Dledrichs-Dewey      incident,      163, 

180 
Diplomacy,  for  the  service  of  the 

people,  369 

—  German,  70 
Disarmament,    328 
Dissatisfaction,      American,      365, 

408   et  seq. 
Dostoiewski,   38 
Drake,  492 

Dreiklassen   system,   148 
Dryander,   198 
Dumdum  bullets,  251.  290 
Duty,     of    America    in    European 

War,  337  et  seq. 

East  Prussia,  490 
Efficiency,   German,   46,   321,   322, 
324,   326,   361,   409 

—  Overbearing,  359 

—  Social,  362 

Egypt,  to  go  to  Turkey,  25,  28 
Eliot,  President,   196,  343 
Embargo  on   arms,    a  fatal  error, 

438 

Embargo,     proposed,     upon     ship- 
ment of  supplies,  434 
Ems  dispatch,   352 
England,    American    hostility    to, 
426 


GENERAL  INDEX 


—  And  her  colonies,  46 

—  Channel   coasts  neutralized   in 

time  of  war,  25 

—  Motive  of,  in  war,   362 

—  Relations   between   U.    S.    and, 

181.  See  also  Great  Brit- 
ain 

''England,  Chant  of  Love  for," 
382 

"English  Friends,  a  Word  with," 
427 

Ethics,  German,  69-70 

—  International,  183,  342,  345 

—  Of  neutrality,  293  et  seq. 
Eucken,   198,  243,  314,  360 
Europe,     German     ambitions     in, 

361   et  seq. 

—  Greatest      battle      of,      since 

Waterloo,   475 

—  Purpose     of    Germans    to    re- 

make, 363 

—  Rearrangement  of,   24 

—  Reorganization  of,  on  Teutonic 

lines,  27 

—  To  be  regenerated,  455 
"Evidence  in  the  Case,"   71 

Fairness   and    moderation,    appeal 

for,   33 
Fair    play,    love    of,    inherent   in 

Anglo-Saxons,    348 
"Falsehoods      about      Germany," 

251 
Fatherland,     love     of,     misplaced, 

248.       See    also    Patriotism, 

German 
Fatherland,   criticism   of   America 

in,  86 

"Federation   of   Nations,"    366 
Feudalism,  failure  of,  361 
Finland,  25,  27,  362 
Flag,  use  of  American,  395 
Food    supply,    to   Germans,    possi- 
bility   of    U.    S.    A.    cutting 

off,   487 
Foodstuffs,    for   Belgium,   259 

—  Importation    of,    by    Germany, 

404  et  seq. 

—  Seizure  of,  403 

—  Shipment  of,   370,   399 
Forces  in  field,  476 
"Forces  of  Evil,   The,"   221 
"Foundations   of  the  XlXth   Cen- 
tury,"   36,    37 

France,  channel  coasts  neutral- 
ized in  time  of  war,  25 

France,  chilled  by  American 
aloofness,  439 

—  Conquered  by  German  culture, 

320 

—  Crushing     military     establish- 

ment of,  369 

—  Duty  of,  360 

—  Invasion   of,   by  Germany,   73 

—  Loan   to,   412 

—  Motive  of,   in  war,   362 

—  Possibility    of    being    crushed, 

389 


—  Sister    republic    to    U.    S.    A., 

388 

—  Surrender  to  Germany,  27 

—  The  emancipator,  455 

—  Treitschke's   view  of,   46 

—  Unenviable  position  of,  491 

—  Unshakeable  demands   of,   493 

—  War    waged    as    people's    war, 

469 

—  What  peace  will  mean  to,  479 

—  Will   demand   vengeance,    455 
Francis  Joseph,  357 
Franco-German   distrust,   491 
Franco-Prussian      War,      28,     63, 

352,  386 

Frederick  the  Great,  31 
French   Revolution,   368,   371 
Frobenius,  464 

Furness',   Horace  Howard,   220 
Furor  Teutonicus,  170,  176 
Future,   the,  belongs  to  Germany, 

46 

Galician  campaign,  335 
Garibaldi,  357,  363 
"GermanLAmerican  Diplomacy,  Ten 

Years  of,"   163 

German-American    interests,    217 
German-American      League,      Na- 
tional,  227 

"German-American  Menace,"  186 
German-American   writers,    33 
German-Americans,    17,    115,    187, 
190,    392,    448 

—  Advice  to,  225 

—  Anglicizing  of,  158 

—  Attitude  of,   toward  this   war, 

171 

—  Author's  attitude  toward,   188 
• —  Classes  of,  172 

—  Discontent  of,  over  attitude  of 

U.   S.   A.,  431 

—  Duty  of,  to  Germans,  458 

—  Faithful  to  Germany,  209 

—  Organization   of,    487 

—  Quotations  from,   76 

—  Support    of    unneutral    meas- 

ures, 234 

—  Supported       by       Irish-Ameri- 

cans, 432 

—  Urging   embargo    on    shipment 

of  supplies,  434 

German     Government,     confidence 
of  Germans  in,  160 

—  Held    accountable    for    atroci- 

ties,  121 
"German    Lesson    at    the    Front," 

110 
"German   Methods   of  Conducting 

the  War,"  257 
German    people,    friendship    of   U. 

S.   A.   for,   428 

-  Lovers  of  peaco,  466  et  seq. 

-  Superiority  of,   199  et  seq. 

—  Unanimous  in  support 'of  gov- 

ernment,   175,   459-4 Tl 
• —  Views  of,   30,  31 
German  race,   36,  37 


GENERAL  INDEX 


543 


"German   religion,"   37 
German  ships,   interned   in   Amer- 
ican ports,  407 
German    societies    in    U.    S.,    200, 

215,   229 

German  soldier,   acquittal  of,   121 
German   Southwest   Africa,   475 
German      statements,      irreconcil- 
able, 300 

German   superiority,   44   to   51    et 
passim 

German  University  League,  219 
German  viewpoint,   108  et  seq. 
"German  War  Book,"   122 
"Germania    Triumphans,"    356 
Germans,  deceiving  words  of,  369 

—  Ridiculed   by   French,   327 

—  Seen  by  foreigner,  313 

—  Universal   distaste  for,   in  Eu- 

rope, 313 
Germany,  ambitions  of,  22,  36 

—  American      attitude      towards, 

350  et  seq. 

—  As  ideal  democracy,  311 

—  Attempts  of,  to   foster  trouble 

between    Great   Britain    and 
U.  S.  A.,  213 

—  Attitude    of    America    toward, 

195 

—  Attitude  toward  U.  S.  A.  neu- 

trality.   439 

—  Colonies   of.      See   Colonies 

—  Condemnation     of     her     treat- 

ment of  Belgium.  99  et  seq. 

—  Condemnation  of  atrocities  of, 

by   Americans,    116 

—  Crushing    of     military     power 

of,   370 

—  Culpability  of,  60  et  seq. 

—  Debt  of  America  to,  325 

—  Debt  to   America,   325 

—  Debt  of  world  to,  316 

—  Declaration     of     "war     zone," 

390  et  seq. 

—  Defence    of    invasion    of    Bel- 

gium, 263  et  seq. 

—  Demands   of   victorious,    24   et 

seq. 

— •  Decribed  by  Dernburg,  140 
— -  Desire  of,  to  organize  Europe, 

361 

—  Destiny  of,  20 

—  Doomed  to  defeat,  457 

—  Economic  preparedness  of,  453 

—  Fanatical  faith  of,  491 

—  Forced   alliance   between   Eng- 

land and  Russia,  458 

—  Forced  to  war,  439 

— •  Fundamental    purpose    of,    in 
war,  466 

—  Great     country     gone     wrong, 

185 

— Helplessness   of,   without   navy, 
487 

—  History  of,   143  et  seq. 

—  Intentions    of,    regarding    Bel- 

gium, 95 


—  Intentions  of,  regarding  South 

America,  351 

—  Judgment   of    Court   of   Civili- 

zation concerning,  64 

—  Manner     of     conducting     war, 

219,  393  et  seq. 

—  Mental      condition      of.        See 
Megalomania 

—  Method    of    declaring    war   in, 

367 

—  Mind  of,  492 

—  Mission  of,  39,  46 

—  Motto  of,  in  war,  255 

—  Must  be  defeated,  344 

—  Now   comprehended   by    world, 

458 

—  Obsolescent  system  of,  344 

—  Organized     press     of,     abroad, 

231 

—  Part  in  political  world,  27 

—  Peaceful  aims   of,   25 

—  Plea  of  "necessity,"   405 

—  Position    of,    at    close    of    six 

months  of  war,  475 

—  Possibility   of  peace   for,   479 

—  Possibility     of     starvation     in, 

477 

—  Purpose  of,  in  the  war,  362 
— •  Reliability    of    statements    of, 

250  et  seq. 

—  Reorganization    of   Europe    by. 

27 

—  Supply     of     arms     in     recent 

wars,   436 

— •  To  be  defeated  by  economic 
pressure,  452 

—  Twofold    policy    toward    U.    S. 

A.,  162  et  seq. 

—  Unproductiveness   of,    330 

—  Victory  of,  353 

—  Violation  of  international  reg- 

ulations,  441 

—  Violation     of    laws     and    cus- 

toms of  war,  338,  372 

—  Violation   of    solemn    contract, 

500 

—  Violation  of  treaty  with  U.  S. 

A.,   344 

"Germany  and  the  Next  War," 
20 

"Germany,  the  Evolution  of  Mod- 
ern," 292 

"Germany,    Triumphant,"   505 

"Germany,  Truth  About,"   251 

Germany's  "Swelled  Head,"  36  et 
seq. 

"Germany's  Answer,"  260 

Giacosa,   Piero,   243 

"Gigantic  Deadlock,"   449 

God,  of  Germans,  55 

Goethe,   34,   316,    319 

Goschen,  Sir  E.,  telegram  to,  91 

Government,    representative,    168 

Granville,  Lord,  90 

Great  Britain,  as  protector  of 
Norway,  456 

—  Attitude  'of  U.    S.    A.    toward, 

194 


544 


GENERAL  INDEX 


—  Attitude    toward    U.    S.    A.    in 

war,  439 

—  Demands     of     victorious     Ger- 

many upon,  25 

—  Dependence     of,     upon     muni- 

tions from  U.  S.  A.,  435 

—  Exceeding  her  rights  with   re- 

neutral     nations, 


to 


-gard 
398 

—  Fighting  for  American   ideals, 

365 

—  Friendship    of,    for    U.    S.    A., 

163,   180,  383,  408 
— •  German  boasts  concerning,  383 
— •  Germany's     policy     regarding, 

219 

—  In  relation  to  invasion  of  Bel- 

gium,  264   et  seq. 

—  In  relation  to  peace,  479,  491 

—  Invasion  of,  27 

—  Judgment    of,    on    attitude    of 

America,   444 

—  "Moral   decay"   of,  40 

—  Protest  of  U.  S.  A.  to,  412 

—  Right    of,    to    defend    advant- 

age,  431 

—  Stand  of,  on  U.  S.  A.  shipping, 

402  et  seq. 

—  U.    S.    A.   neutrality  favorable 

to,   424 
Greater    Germany,    Kaiser's    view 

of,  36 
Greater    Servia,    idea    intolerable 

to  Austria,  260 
Grey,   Sir  Edward,  91 
Grivegnee,     proclamation      posted 

at,  101 

Grotius,   363.  404 
"Grudges,"  America  not  home  of, 

180 

Guesde,  469  et  seq. 
Guild,  Curtis,  440 
Gunpowder,  supply  of,  a  grave 

anxiety    in    Germany.       See 

also  Munitions  of  War 
Gwinner,  von,  198 

Hiseckel,  198,  314,  360 

Hague    Conferences,    The,    337    et 

seq.,    344    et   seq.3   359,   418, 

421,   428,   441 

—  Broken   pledges  of,   250 

—  Regulations  of  war  formulated 

in,   373 

—  Violation  of,  444  et  seq. 
Hague  Tribunal,  The,  366 
Hamilton,   Alexander,    72,   436 
Hampden,   John,   363 
Harnack,   198,   360 

Harden,   Maximilian,    195 
"Hate,  Chant  of,"  307 
Hatred,   German  world,   371 
Heeringen,   von,    325 
Heine,  314,  315 
Heredity,  influence  of,   173 
llexamer,  Charles,  176 
ITibbon,  President,  244 
Hitchcock,   Senator,   432 


Hohenzollern      dynasty,      143      et 

Holland,  '  342,    490 

—  Coasts   of,   neutralized  in   time 

of  war,  25 

—  Respect  of  Germany  for,  96 
Holleben,   von,   164,   166,   167 
Humanity,  characteristic  of  civil- 
ized man,  316 

—  Leadership  of,  47 

Hurt,  possibility  of,  to  Ameri- 
cans, 485 

Huxley,   330 

Hypocrisy,  Anglo-Saxon,  charge 
of,  69 

—  German,  67-68 

Ideal,  American,  196,   359 
"Idealism   as  a   Practical   Creed," 

369 
Idealism,     European    respect    for, 

420 
Ideals,  American,  196 

—  Democratic,   361 

—  Democratic,    of    English-speak- 

ing people,   180 

—  German,  57,  159,  196 

—  Of  Allies,   484 

—  Prussian,  169 

Idea,  of  liberty,  behind  war,  360 

Indemnities,  29,  258 

Indemnity,     to    be    demanded    by 

Germany,    28 
Independence  Hall,  383 
Inquiry,    Belgian    Commission    of, 

103 

Insanity,  German.  See  Mega- 
lorn anid 

Instinctive  beauty,   359 
Instinctive   faith,    359 
Insurance,  social,   370 
"Intellectual     Moratorium,      An," 

329 
"Intellectuals."     German,     280    et 

seq.,  463 
Interests,     of     America,     in     the 

war,  350  et  seq. 
International  court,  369,  498 
International     justice,      duty      of 

America  to  promote.  386 
International    law,    61,    337,    342, 

372,  441,   444  et  seq. 

—  Necessity    of,    controlling   dec- 

laration    and     inauguration 
of  war,  367 

—  New,  for  benefit  of  single  bel- 

ligerent, 438 

—  Obligation  of  U.  S.  to  defend, 

422  et  seq. 
International     matters,     need     of 

judge  in,  495 

International   police,   366,   495 
Intervention,       American,       what 

could    be    accomplished    by, 

435,  487  et  seq. 

—  Question  of  American,  in  war, 

338  et  seq. 

—  Necessity  of,  375 


GENERAL  INDEX 


545 


—  Technical      justifications      for 

American,   488 

Inventions,  American,  325,  326 
Inventiveness,  German,  316,  325 
Irish-Americans,  190,  409 

—  Supporting          German-Ameri- 

cans, 432 

"Is  President  Wilson  Pro-Ger- 
man?" 412 

Islamism,   329 

Italy,   46 

—  Announcement    of    neutrality, 

473 

—  Attitude   toward   war,   471    et 

seq. 

—  Duty  of,  360 

— .  Expense  of  maintaining  neu- 
trality, 474 

—  Tempted  by  Allies,  474 

—  Her  duty  of  disclosure,  63 

—  Neutrality  of,  243 

—  Probable     entrance     of.     into 

war,  477 

—  Support  of  neutrality  by  Vor- 

icaerts,  468 

Japan,  attitude  of  German-Amer- 
icans toward,  187 

—  Duty  of,  360 

—  German   attempts   to   sow   dis- 

cord between  U.   S.   A.  and, 
222  et  seq. 

—  Influence  of,  in  Manchuria,  25 

—  Love  of  U.  S.  A.  for,  4O9 
Japanese-Russian  War,    412 
Jefferson,  436 

Joan  of  Arc,  52 
Jones,    Sir   Henry,   369 

Kaiser,  18,  19,  51-59,  340,  342, 
355,  365,  463,  408 

• —  Ambition  for  Greater  Ger- 
many, 36 

—  As  symbol  of  State,  59 

—  Author's  opinion  of  the,  52 

—  Belief    of,    in    his    Divine    ap- 

pointment,  52 

—  Birthday     congratulations     of 

American  people,  390 

—  Delirium  of  grandeur  of,  53 

—  Ferocious       exhortations       of, 

244 

—  Greeting   to    Military    Society, 

166 

—  Howells*    view    of    the,    53    et 

seq. 

—  Megalomania  of,  52,  58 

—  Mental   condition   of,   52 

—  Message    of    to    Crown    Prin- 

cess, 54 

—  Middle-ear  disease   of,   52 

—  Neuropsychopathic,  52 

—  Personal      responsibility      for 

war.  51 

—  Possibility  a  paranoiac,  52 

—  Quoted,  39 

—  Served  by  blundering  officials, 

457 

35 


—  Speeches  of,  56,  57,  58,  466 

—  Supported   by    German   people, 

175 

—  Telegram    of,    on    August    1st, 

73 

—  War  constantly  in  mind  of,  57 
Keim,   464 

"King  Albert's  Book,"   132 
Kinkel,   Gottfried,   363 
Klemt,    testimony   of   German   at- 
rocities, 119 
Koch,  330 
Koester,  von,  464 
Komura,  Marquis,  221 
Kriegsstaat,  169 
Kultur.     See  Culture 

Lamprecht,  198 

Language,  in  relation  to  con- 
quest, 41 

— •  German,  to  be  forced  on 
world,  40 

—  World,   German  as,   201 
Lenard,  Doctor,  51 
Lentz,   John  J.,  165 
Leon,   209 

Liberal   government,   The,   421 
Liberty,    as   basis   of   State,    view 
of   Allies,   454 

—  Individual,      desire      for,      as 

basis  of  war,  359  et  seq. 

—  Motive  of  Allies,  502 

—  Spencer's     theory      regarding, 

368 
Liege,   proclamation  to  municipal 

authorities  of,   100 
Lincoln,  363,   367,  484 
Lincoln's   Gettysburg   speech,    371 
Literature,   German,   145.  314 
Lobeck,  204,  206,  207,  209 
Lodge,    Senator,   407,   411 
London,    occupation    of,    by    Ger- 
many,  27 

Losses,  453,  476,  490 
Louvain,  destruction  of,  112,  202, 

219,   258 
Love,  of  Germans  of  French  and 

Belgians,  43 
Lusitania,  395 
Luxemburg,     indemnity     paid     by 

Germany     for     violation     of 

neutrality,   324 

—  Violation     of     neutrality     of, 

423,  445 

Machiavelli,  18,  62 

Machtpolitik,  361 

Madness.     See  Megalomania 

Maeterlinck,  470 

Magna   Charta,    368 

Manchuria,  Japanese  influence 
in,  25 

Marlborough,  492 

Marne,  battle  of,  475 

Mazzini,   363 

Medicine,  discoveries  in,  not.  Ger- 
man, 318 


546 


GENERAL  INDEX 


Megalomania,      German,      35      et 

seq.,  44   et  sea..  47  et  seq., 

135,  484,  499 
Men  in  field,  476 
Mental    processes,    German,    202 
Mercantile     interests,      American, 

422 
Merchant  marine,   American,  228, 

232 
Metals,   maximum   price   of,    fixed 

by  Bundesrath,  461 
Metternich,   362 
Mexico,    409 

—  Anarchy  in,  373 

—  Embargo     upon     shipment     of 

arms  into,  434 
Meyer,  Kuno,  190  et  seq. 
Militarism,   check  of,   491 

—  Defense  of,  30,  31,  32 

—  Duty    of  democratic   states   in 

relation  to,  369 

—  German,    21,    22,    46,    138    et 

seq.,     171,     196,     199,     308, 
324,    327,   360,   457 

—  Nightmare  of,   493 

—  Prejudice  to  spreading  culture 

by,  327 

—  To  be  crushed,  455 

—  World   not  willing  to   consent 

to  truce  with,  493 

—  Worship  of,  174 
"Military   Necessity,"   397 
Mines,   right  to  plant,  391 

—  Protest  against  laying,  428 
Mobilization,   German,   73 
Mohammed,   327 

Moltke,   General  von,   73 

Monarchical  idea,   502 

Monarchies,  in  Federation  of  Na- 
tions, 367 

— •  Procedure  of,  in  war,  367 

Money,  expenditure  of,  in  war, 
449 

Monroe  Doctrine,  25,  93,  95,  157, 
284,  311,  350,  353  et  seq., 
358,  409 

—  In  regard  to  Canada,  93,  311, 

—  In  regard  to  Cuba,  217 

—  German   attitude  toward,    162 
Monuments,    protest    against    de- 
struction of,  428 

Moral  interests,  of  U.  S.  A.  in 
infractions  of  law  of  na- 
tions, 446 

Morals.     See  Ethics 

Morocco,  German  annexation  of, 
25; 

Morgan,  J.  P.  &  Co.,  412 

Munitions  of  war,  American  ex- 
port of,  232,  233,  236,  237 

—  European  precedent  for  Amer- 

ican position  regarding,  436 

—  Manufacture   of   and    sale   of, 

436 

—  Refusal   to  sell  to  Allies,   210 

et  seq. 

Mtinsterberg,  18,  22,  52,  181  et 
seq.,  198,  254,  255,  360 


Murder,  mathematics  of,   477 
Music,  German,  330 

Namur,  notice  posted  at,  100 

Napoleon,    18,   443 

Naturalization,  of  aliens  in  U.  S., 
208 

— •  Of  Germans  in  U.  S.,  187 

Necessity,  for  more  room,  German 
plea  of,  69 

— •  Plea  of,  for  violation  of  Bel- 
gium, 68,  70 

Nelson,   492 

Neutral  nations,  example  of  U.  S. 
A.  to,  504 

—  German   condemnation   of.   43 
Neutral   shipping,    394   et  seq. 
Neutral  states,  366,  372 
Neutrality,    American,    439 

—  Attitude  of  German-Americans 

toward,  187 

—  "Dollar,"  of  U.   S.,  432 

—  Ethics  of,  293  et  seq. 

—  Economic  burden  of,  in  case  of 

Italy,   474 

—  Italy's    announcement    of,    473 

—  Obligation    to    positive    action, 

422 

—  Oflicial,   407 

—  Passive,    439 

—  Violation    of,    by    author,    235. 

See       also       Belgium       and 

United  States 
Neutrality  leagues,  227,  232,  236, 

244 
"Neutrality,  Legal  Versus  Moral," 

385 

New  York  Peace  Society,  496 
Newspapers.      See  Press 
Nietzsche,   34,    198,   253,   319,   370 
Nitrates,     lack     of,     in    Germany, 

462 

Nitrogenous  salts,   supply    of.   im- 
portant to  Germany,  461 
Nobility,  lack  of,  in  Germans,  159 
North    Sea,    121,    391,      See    also 

War  Zone 
Norway,  integrity  of,   456 

Opinion.     See  Public  Opinion 
Opinions,     general,     justified     by 

evidence,  499  et  seq. 
Opportunity,   favorable   for  Triple 

Alliance,   136 

Opposing  forces,  principles  repre- 
sented by  the,  in  the  war. 

138  et  seq. 

"Orange  Paper,     62  et  .<?r//. 
"Order   in   Council,"    British,   402 

et  seq. 
Organization  of  Germans  in  U.  S. 

A.,   190   et  seq. 
Ostwald,  Prof.,  363 
Outcome  of  war,   24   et  seq..  448 

et  seq. 

Pacific.  American  naval  suprem- 
acy in,  157 


GENERAL  INDEX 


547 


Pan-German  campaign,  215 

—  Literature,   45 

—  Prophets,    354 
"Pan-Germanism,"    135 
Pan-Germans,      quotations     from, 

30-31 

—  War   inspired   by,   499 

Paris,   German  culture  dependent 

on,  320' 
Pasteur,  330 
Patriotism,  German,  45,  176,  230, 

453 

—  Condemnation     of,     by      Vor- 

waerts,  468 

Peace,  American  championship  of, 
156  et  seq. 

—  Abandonment  of  neutrality  to 

secure,  429 

—  Conditions  of  permanent,  496 

—  Dangers  of,  30,  31 

—  Democracies      committed      to, 

367 

—  Distant,    474 

—  German     patriotism,     obstruc- 

tions to,  453 

—  Sort  of,  desirable,  483,  484 

—  Sought    by    England,    France, 

Italy  and  Russia,   65 

—  Not  sufficient  desire  for,  479 

—  Possible  on  two  bases,  478 

—  Treitschke's  view   of,  21 

—  Undesirability   of  inconclusive, 

482 

—  Universal,  328 

—  Vision  of,  489  et  seq. 

—  Value  of,  to  contestants,  478 

—  What    Americans    can    do    to 

help    bring    about,     481     et 
seq.3  485 
Peace     of     Righteousness,     World 

League  for,  495 
Peace  party,  in  Germany,  465 
Peace  Society,  New  York,  496 
Peculiarity,  racial  or  tribal,  172 
Persian  Gulf,  25 
Philippines,  163,  180,  354 
Philistines   of   culture,   320 
Philosophy,   German,   war  as  out- 
come  of,   387 

Place  in  the  sun,  Germany's,  23 
Poland,  25,  27,  29,  38 

—  Overrun  by   troops,  490 

—  Russian  armies  In,   334 

—  Russian   proposals   concerning, 

333 

Poles  regarded  as  helots,   38 
Police  duty,   of   navies   of   France 

and  Great  Britain,  370 
Police,  international,  366,  495 
Polish   press,    38 
Polish   societies,   38 
Political   ideals,   of   Germany   and 

U    S.  in  conflict,  158 
Politics,    American,    influenced   by 

war  conditions,  247 
Population,   of  Germany,   problem 

of,  292 
Possibilities,  tragic,  of  war,  340 


Poverty,  anomaly  of,  353 

—  As  consequence  of  war,  462 
Prayer,    of    German    Church    for 

victory,  54 

Present  time,  reason  why  selected 
by  Germany  for  war,  135  et 
seq. 

President  of  U.  S.  A.  See  Wil- 
son, President 

Press,  American,  anti-German  at- 
titude of,  165 

—  Danger    of,    German    influence 

on,  193 

—  German  condemnation  of,  234 

—  Irritating  to  Germany,  424 

— .  Voicing  real  attitude  of  na- 
tion, 429 

Press,  foreign,  prejudice  against 
Germany,  203  et  seq. 

Press,  German,  attitude  toward 
protest  of  neutral  nations, 
397 

—  Comment   on    American   stand 

in  shipping  question,  399 
et  seq. 

—  In  United  States,  165  et  seq. 

—  Liberty   of,   151 

Press,       German-American,       165, 

432,  433 

"Prevention  of  War,  The,"  366 
Principles  at  stake,  484 

—  Underlying  war,   138  et  seq. 
Professors,     appointment     of,     at 

German    universities,    50 

—  English,  reply  of,  to  Germans, 

66 
— •  German,  loyalty  of,  277  et  seq. 

—  Influence  of,   279 
Pro-German      propaganda.         See 

Propaganda,   German 
Propaganda,   German,  aims  of,  in 
America,    190  et  seq. 

—  Effect  of,  228  et  passim 
Proposal  for  peace,  Grey  to  Go»- 

chen,   91 

Protest,  against  violation  of  rules 
of  civilized  war,  372 

—  American    against   repudiation 

of  principles  of  interna- 
tional law  regulating  ship- 
ping, 398 

e—»  Of    Kaiser    to   President    Wil- 
son, 301 
—  Of  U.  S.  A.,  446 

— •  "Psychological"  moment  for, 
375 

Prussia,  domination  of  in  Ger- 
many, 355 

Public  opinion,  German  against 
U.  S.  A.,  439 

—  American,   244,  254,  256,  380, 

439 

—  American,      concerning     viola- 

tion of  neutrality  of  Bel- 
gium, 271 

—  American,   efforts  to  influence, 

501 


548 


GENERAL  INDEX 


—  American,  from  German  view- 

point,   421 

—  American,   "hypocrisy"  of,  425 

—  German,   19,  454 
Punishment,  vicarious,  373 
Purpose,  underlying,  of  this  war, 

170 

Radicals,  359 

Railways,     Germant    in     Belgium, 

275 

Reich,  Emil,  36  et  seq.,  325 
Reichstag,  membership  in,  at  end 

of  war,  29 
Representative    government,     138 

et  seq. 

Research,  German,  326 
Reventlow,  464 
Revolution,    materialistic,    361 

—  Possibility     of     German,     143, 

153 

Revolutionists,   German,   471 

Rheims,  destruction  of  Cathedral 
of,  259,  298 

Rights  of  man,  democracies  com- 
mitted to,  367 

Roman  Catholic  Irish,  426 

Roosevelt,  33,   130,  346,  419,  484 

Root,    Elihu,    157 

Rulers,    German,    143    et  seq. 

Rumania,  to  receive  part  of 
Arabia,  28 

—  Probable     entrance     of,     Into 

war,   477 
Russia,  46,  367,  491   et  passim 

—  Ambitions  of,  332  et  svq. 

—  American  loan  to,  412 

—  Conditions  in,   preceding  war, 

468 

— i  Dependence  of,  upon  muni- 
tions from  U.  S  ,  435 

—  Dismemberment  of,   at  end  of 

the  war,  28 

—  Duty    of,     to    Polish,     Finnish 

and  Jewish  subjects,  360 

—  Fighting  for  American   ideals, 

365 

—  Motive  of,  In  war,  362 

—  Possibility    of    her    failing    to 

keep  promises,  370 

—  Relation    of,    to    war,    332    et 

seq. 

—  Responsible  for  the  war,  66 

• — •  Share  of,  in  war,  334  et  seq. 

—  Spirit  of  war,  334  et  seq. 

—  To  be  rendered  impotent,  27 

—  What  peace  will  mean  to,  479 
"Russian   peril,"   468 
Russo-Turkish  War,  396 

Saltpeter,  Germany  deprived  of 
import  of,  461 

—  Lack  of,  in  Germany,  462 
Scandinavian   countries.    362 
Scarborough,  raid  on,  123 
Sehleswig-IIolstein,    357,   456 
Schmoller,  von,   198 
Schurz,  Carl.  357,  362.  363 


Schutz  und  Trutz,  282,  283 

Science,  German,  315 

"Scrap  of  paper,"  62,  96,  300, 
339,  352,  398;  Dr.  Dillon's 
book,  71 

Sea,  losses  at,  449 

"Secret  papers,"  264  et  seq. 

"Secret  treaties,"  264  et  seq. 

Self-preservation,  instincts  of, 
360 

Self-protection,  three  methods  of 
national,  497 

Sembat,  469 

Servia,  Austria's  attempt  to  sand- 
bag, 472 

—  To  go  to  Austria,  28 
Seydel,  von,   152 
Sheridan.   John  P.,   191 
Ship-purchase    bill,    407,    409    et 

seq. 

Ships,  German,  interned  in  Amer- 
ican ports,  411  et  eq. 

Sigsbee,  395 

"Silence,  America's,"  422 

"Slav   Peril,"   332  et  seq. 

Slavery,  failure  of,  361 

Slavonic  ideas,  360 

Social   Democrats,  153,  467 

Social  instinct,  lack  of,  in  Ger- 
man culture,  314 

Socialism  ia  Germany,  151,  177, 
467  et  seq. 

Socialist  literature,  admitted  to 
barracks,  470 

Socialists,  attitude  of  German, 
toward  war,  468 

Socialists  in  Italy,  472 

Soldiers'  societies,  German,  in  U. 
S.  A.,  166 

South  African  revolution,  475 

South  America,  German  expan- 
sion in,  94 

—  German    intentions    regarding, 

351,  354,   358 

—  Republics  of,  362,  369 
Spain,  loss  of  Cuba,   2J7 
Spanish-American     War,     217     et 

seq.,  230,  396,  408 

Speech,  freedom  of,  in  neutral 
America,  192 

Spencer,   Herbert,   368 

Starvation,  310 

State  Department,  attitude  to- 
ward "Aryan"  episode,  412 

—  Concessions     with     regard     to 

methods  of  warfare,  403 

—  Notes   of,    399 

State,   the  Allies'   view   of,   454 

—  German  view  of,  48,  174,  179, 

454 

—  Ideal  of,  31 

—  Nietzsche's  conception  of,  253 

—  Salvation    through,   369 
Steuben,  362 

Strike,  eve  of,  in  Russia,  468 
Suderman,   199 

Suez  Canal,  to  go  to  Turkey  al 
end  of  war,  29 


•     GENERAL  INDEX 


549 


Summary  of  views,  499  et  seq. 
Supplies,    of   Germany,    efficiently 
managed,  453 

—  Proposed   embargo    upon   ship- 

ment of,  434 

—  To  belligerents,   205,  207,  210 

et  seq, 

"Supreme  Court  of  Civilization," 
60 

Supreme  Court  of  U.  S.,  436 

Survival  of  fittest,   32 

Sweden,  to  be  united  with  Fin- 
land, 27 

—  To  receive  Poland,  28 
Sympathy,    American,    for    Allies, 

—  American,  for  Germany,  324 

Taylor,    ex-President,     of     Vassar 

College,   188 
"Teutonic  idea,"   168 
Teutonic  race,  superiority  of,   184 
Theocracy,  failure  of,  361 
"Thinking,    German    and    Other," 

195 
Trade,  ambitions  of  Germany  for, 

370 
Traffic  in  arms,  American,  432  et 

seq. 
Transfer  of  ships,  413.     See  also 

Ship-purchase   bill. 
Treaties,     concerning     neutrality, 

general     considerations     re- 
garding, 79 

—  Hague,  to  be  regarded,  345 

—  Instances  of  breaking  of,  78 

—  Of  1870.  79  et  seq.,  82,  90 

—  Secret,  264  et  seq. 
Treitschke,    17    et   seq.,    29,    198, 

230,  369 

"Triumphant  Germany,"   505 
"Truth  about  Germany,  The,"  35, 

250,  277,  313 

Truth,  no  concern  of  state,  263 
Turk,  disaster  to,  475 
Turkey,  left  to  her  fate,  479 

—  Relations  of  with  Germany,  25 

—  Share  of  cost  at  end  of  war, 

28 

—  To    receive    tolls    from    Suez 

Canal,  29 

Undergraduates,  of  German  uni- 
versities, 464 

Unfairness,  complaints  of,  regard- 
ing Germany's  case,  250 

'United  States,  abandonment  of 
neutrality,  429 

—  As  arbiter  between  Great  Brit- 

ain and   Germany,   420,  424 

—  As  custodian  of  the  rights  of 

neutrals,   418 

—  As  "melting  pot,"  228 

—  Attitude  of  Administration  in 

war,  488.  502 

—  Attitude    of   Germany    toward, 

156 

—  Baffling  attitude  of,  388 


—  Championship  of  peace,  156  et 

seq. 

—  Change  of  opinion  in,  26 

—  Commercial    interest    in    war, 

444 

—  Commercialism  in,  443 

—  Convicted     of    cowardice     and 

complicity  in  crime,  443 

—  Debt     of,     to     England     and 

France,   343 

—  Debt  of  Germany  to,  325 

—  Debt  to  Germany,  325 
— -  Detachment  of,  418 

—  Duties  of,  in  relation  to  Euro- 

pean War,  337  et  seq. 

—  Duties    of,    to    rest    of    world, 

364 

—  Duty  of,  371,  419,  442 

—  Duty    to    support    Allies,    485 

et  seq. 

—  Effect    of    official    attitude    on 

Americans,  364  et  seq. 

—  Effect    on    other    peoples,    417 

et  seq. 

—  Efforts    of    German-Americans 

to  bulldoze,  225 

—  Favoring  of  Germany  by  Ship- 

purchase   bill,    407 
— •  German   attempts   to   sow   dis- 
cord    between     Japan     and, 
222  et  seq. 

—  Government      compared      with 

German,    160 

—  High   role   of,    389 

—  Hope  of  author  for,   505 

—  Impairment   of   moral    author- 

ity of,   373 

—  Importance  of  present  course, 

447 

—  In    case   of   German   invasion, 

72 

—  Interests  of,   In   the   war,   350 

et  seq. 

—  Land  of  commercialism,  442 

—  Land  of  liberty,  442 

—  League    for    maintaining    neu- 

trality of,  227,  232  et  seq. 
— .  Making  no  real  friends  in  war, 
440 

—  Military  status  of,   158 

—  Neutrality    of,    176,    1ST,    212 

et  seq.,  226,  243  et  seq.,,  33J 
et  seq.,  365,  407,  415,  426, 
435 

—  Poem   of   Miss   Carter  regard- 

ing neutrality  of  380 

—  Policy  of  neutrality,  415 

—  Policy  in  Cuba,  217 

—  Political  aims  of,  156 

—  Obligation   regarding   Belgium, 

338 

—  Open  breach  of  neutrality,  407 

—  Real  grievance  of,  503 

—  Spirit  of,  384 

—  Subsequent  conquest  of,  18,  19 

—  Supplies    to    belligerents,    205, 

207,  210  et  seq. 


550 


GENERAL  INDEX 


—  Sympathy  of,  with  Allies,  428, 

503 

—  Sympathy  of,  with  Great  Brit- 

ain, 427 

—  Technical   grievance   of,  503 

—  "True  neutrality"  of,  435 

—  What    could    be    accomplished 

by    intervention    of,    487    et 

seq. 

— •  What  might  be  done  by,  348 
University    system,    German,    50, 

152,  277,  464 
Unrest,  American,  365,  408  et  seq. 

—  German,  152  et  seq. 

Vessels,   neutral,   right  of  search, 

398  et  seq.3  407 
Victory,   for  militarism   or   peace, 

139 

—  Of  Allies,  what  it  would  mean, 
347,  353,   357 

—  Of    Germany,    what    it    would 

mean,  347,  353,  354,  356  et 
seq. 

Villa,   434 

Violation  of  international  regu- 
lations, 441 

—  Of  rules  of  war,  338,  372 

—  Of  treaties,   344,   500 
Vollmer,  204,   206,   207.   209 
Vorwaerts,     attitude     of,     toward 

war,  467  et  seq. 

War,  advocated  for  America,  341 
et  seq. 

—  Anomaly  of,   353 

—  As  biological  necessity,  32,  483 

—  As  work  of  God,   199 

—  Attitude  of  German  people  to- 

ward, 465 

—  Biggest  issue  of,  441 

—  Biological  necessity  of,  32,  483 

—  Blessings  of,  30,   31,  32 

—  Causes  of,  17,  327 

—  Civil,   danger   of,    in    event    of 

outbreak  between  Germany 
and  U.  S.  A.,  167 

—  Cost  of  armies  of,  451 

—  Cult  of,  German,  371 

—  Duration   of,  449  et  seq.,  462, 

475,   478,  479 

—  Explanation  of,  49 

—  Favorable  opportunity  for  gen- 

eral European,   136 

—  Forced  upon  Germany,  439 
—  German,  purpose  in,  355 

—  German  rules  of,  122 

—  How  precipitated,  500 

—  Hypocrisy   of,   unveiled,    107 

—  Laws  and  customs  of,   337  et 

seq. 

—  Levies,  in  Belgium,  323 

—  Modern,   international   law  re- 

garding, 445 

—  Methods  of  present,   372 

—  Most    gigantic    ever    recorded, 

456 


— .  Necessity    of   law    controlling, 
367 

—  Political     idealism     dependent 

on,  21 

— .  Possible    outcome    of,    24    et 
seq.,  448  et  seq. 

—  Possibility  of  ending,  by  with- 

holding war  material,  435 

—  Prevention  of,   366 

—  Principles  underlying  present, 

138  et  seq. 

—  Procedure    of    monarchies    in, 

367 

—  Real  beginning  of,  454,  456 

—  Real  issue  of,   492 

—  Responsibility  for,   18,  70 

—  Rules  of,  442 

—  Sacredness  of,  464 

—  Untold  horror  of,  489 

—  Why  precipitated  by  Germany 

at  present  time,  135  et  seq. 
"War  against  Czarism,"  468 
"War  and   America,   The,"    181 
"War,    German    Methods    of   Con- 
ducting the,"   257 
"War  is  War,"   186 
War  Lord,  90,  341,  484 
War  of  1812,  384 

-  Party  in  Germany,  463  et  seq. 
"War,    the    American    versus    the 

German  Viewpoint  of,"  108 
"War  Zone,"  342,  390  et'seq.,  487 
Warfare,  advocacy  of,  33 

—  German  methods  of,  374 
Washington,  George,  363,  364,  484 
"Watchful   waiting,"   351,   488 
Wavre,  letter  addressed  to  burgo- 
master of,  101 

Wealth  of  European  nations,  452 

Wellington,   492 

"Weltmacht  oder  Niedergang,"  32 

Westminster  Abbey,   383 

"What     should     America      Learn, 

from  War,"  495 
"When    Germany    Wins,"    23,    24, 

25,  27,  28 

"White  Papers,"  35,  62  et  seq. 
White  Paper,  British,  91,  93,  95 
Wilhelm   I,   58 
Wilhelm  II.     See  Kaiser 
Wilhelmina,  398  et  seq. 
Wilson,   President,   225,   226,   227, 

247,  347,  397  420,  425,  433, 

434,   438,  447 

—  Admonitions  of,  as  to  neutral- 

ity, 486 

—  As  peace-makor,  421 

—  Author's  criticism  of,  410 

-  Duty  of  protest,   342 

• —  Efforts    in     support    of    Ship- 
purchase  bill,  410  et  seq. 

—  His  congratulation  of  Emperor 

William    criticized,    390 

—  Ideals  of,  364 

—  Impossibility      of     compliance 

with  his  request,  386  et  seq. 

—  Neutrality  of,  213 

-  Pro-German  attitude  of,  412 


GENERAL  INDEX 


551 


Wisdom,  German,  23 

"Wistar,   Sallie,"   106 

Woltman,  Ludwig,  37 

Women,  attitude  of  German  to- 
ward, 313 

Word,  value  of  to  civilized  man, 
316 

"Word  with  our  English  Friends, 
A,"  427 


Works,  Senator,  432 

World  League  for  Peace  of  Right- 
eousness, 495 

World  Power,  German,  17,  350, 
371,  499 

—  Prussian  idea  of,  355 

"World  War  and  Its  End,"  27,  28 

"Yellow  Peril,"  223 


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